121: Idea for compensation (#159)

ideas/121-swarm-compensation/model-bountify-all.md

@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+# Bountify all
+
+## Problem
+
+We have a lot of issues in various Status repositories. These could to a large
+extent be solved by the larger community, as well as incentivized according to
+priority by core contributors.
+
+Additionally, there's no reward for putting bounties on issues, which leads to
+an uphill battle in terms of bounty growth (see Andy's slides Town Hall).
+
+## Solution
+
+Create a swarm that will put a bounty on all outstanding issues and give
+bountifier/issue creator a reward (finder's fee) for doing so, assuming the
+issue gets solved.
+
+The finder's fee can be ad hoc in inital implementation, and if proven
+successful it can be encoded in a SOB contract.
+
+There are five objections for putting a bounty on all issues as far as I
+can see:
+
+1. Issue is not well-defined enough
+
+Then it should be closed.
+
+2. Issue requires privileged access
+
+OK exception - mark with label 'closed-flow' and move on.
+
+3. Cost
+
+Currently we have around 500 issues in status-react. Assuming they are all good
+issues, and they get rewarded an average of $100 _if solved_, that's $50k. This
+isn't an unreasonable amount, assuming we actually solve these issues.
+
+Additionally, we can put an artificial growth limit on this. So first week 20 issues,
+next week 22, etc.
+
+4. Pervese incentives
+
+This is only true for core contributors, and we aren't currently operating in a
+byzantine environment. So this can be solved simply by a basic honor system, and
+simple soft rules like not solving bounties you yourself put up.
+
+5. Effort involved
+
+The finder's fee of 10% (or 5% for issue creator 5% for bounty creator)
+hopefully solves this issue. This is the hypothesis this swarm would test.
+
+## Future work
+
+1. Automatically put bounties on all new issues, given some conditions
+
+2. Instead of spitballing bounty size, use issue size and priority to determine
+   bounty size. E.g. a matrix where bounty size can be 1*3=3 (small, high prio),
+   3*3=9 (big, high prio).