We’ve long been grateful for the hard work of our open-source community, so we’re pleased to announce Grants, a program that gives contributors the opportunity to be compensated for their efforts. It’s in beta right now at grants.urbit.org↗.
The Grants program will reward valuable contributions with Azimuth stars in one of three ways: Gifts, Bounties, and Proposals.
Gifts
We’ve periodically announced gifts for important contributions to the project – like in 2018↗ and 2019↗ – but we wanted to make this more formal.
Not everyone always works on structured projects, so the lack of formal criteria for receiving a gift is meant to reward contributors who work outside of the bounty and grant system.
Going forward, gifts will be awarded semi-annually (every six months). They’ll retain the informal and arbitrary nature of the awards that came before: Tlon will determine who gets what. We’ll work hard to make sure these payouts are fair.
To see the gifts that have been awarded so far, check out the History section↗ of the Grants website.
Bounties
Bounties are discrete projects in search of a champion. Tlon will define a clear deliverable, and some number of stars as their reward. Larger bounties will often have their star reward spread across multiple milestones.
Contributors can apply to claim a bounty by clicking the “Request to work on this” button. Once a contributor is selected to work on a bounty, nobody else will be able to apply.
Bounties are listed in the Bounties explorer↗. Play around with the explorer by filtering bounties using the Tag and Category features.
Proposals
Proposals are a way for contributors to pitch their own ideas, with a targeted number of stars. Proposals can be accepted, rejected, or accepted with changes. Unlike bounties, a proposal can only be completed by the individual or group who submitted it.
Proposals don’t need to be fleshed out like a bounty does, at least not initially. Submit an idea and Tlon will work with you to refine it.
You can see the list of accepted proposals in the Proposals explorer↗.
What can you do?
Sign up↗ on our Grants website page, then set up your profile so we know who you are, linking your GitHub, Twitter, and your Azimuth point: reputation is a factor in determining eligibility for a grant.
Also, check out the Grants section↗ of the new Urbit FAQ for more information.
