Bounty

A bounty is a sponsor-funded prize tied to narrow criteria specific to the sponsor's interests. The Sponsor-Bounty Federation format archetype is structured around bounties as parallel evaluation tracks, with each sponsor judging their bounty against their own narrow criteria. ETHGlobal is the canonical worked example, with the convention that one project may apply to no more than three bounties. The format works when bounties are real — backed by sponsors who will evaluate submissions seriously and engage with the winners after the event — rather than performative, which is the form sponsor capture tends to take. See format-taxonomy and partner-prize.