I've written a lot recently about poidh's potential as a trustless human coordination tool.

At the heart of this argument is poidh's "open bounty" product.

Open bounties differ from classic bounties in that they are self-contained "incentivization markets" that allow people to crowdfund and verify a specific outcome.

Imagine posting a $25 bounty to clean up a park. Three other people chip in $25 each. Someone does the task, uploads proof, all contributors verify the proof is legit, and funds are released automatically.

Seamless online coordination → IRL action without anyone having to personally know each other or hold the funds for the group.

And it's only possible with poidh open bounties.

This guide will walk you through how they work in practice, how we keep the crowdfunding process "trustless", and what they can be used for.

To create an open bounty, use the bounty creation form on the poidh website.

By default, bounties will be set to "open". Keep this option enabled, then fill out your title, description, and reward as usual.

Once everything looks correct, confirm the transaction to create the bounty. After it’s finalized, you'll be redirected to your new bounty URL.

Every open bounty has an "add funds" button. Click it, then deposit funds to contribute to the reward pool.

Contributions determine voting power, measured as a share of total funds (e.g., contributing 1 ETH to a 5 ETH bounty = 20% voting power).

Once a contributor adds funds, they have the ability to vote on whether submitted work should be accepted. However, it's important to note that they do not have the ability to propose a specific claim for vote.

The ability to propose a claim for vote is solely reserved for the creator of the bounty.

Why is this? The simple explanation is that, if any contributor could submit a claim for vote, it'd be trivially easy to perform a hostile takeover of a bounty.

I create a bounty for $10, you add $20, you propose your own claim, and, since you have a majority voting share, you take my money.

With the bounty creator as the sole party responsible for proposing winners, we ensure that the person who had the original idea for the bounty is able to leave the door open for further contributors, while still protecting themselves from a bounty raider.

Importantly, though, the bounty creator does not have control over contributor funds either (as long as they are not the majority bounty contributor).

All poidh open bounties have a built-in 48-hour voting window where contributors are allowed to vote yes/no on a claim that's submitted for vote.

If a bounty creator submits a claim that doesn't fit the standards of the majority of contributors, it will be vetoed. After a veto, contributors can choose to withdraw their funds from the bounty, an action which can be done permissionlessly at any time (as long as the bounty is not under vote).

This is what allows poidh open bounties to enable trustless coordination. Money is being pooled for a specific task while no single actor is holding permanent control over the funds.

Contributors can come and go as they please, while bounty creators must be diligent about only approving legitimate claims if they want to maintain a reputation as someone with ideas worth boosting.

If you are the bounty creator, submitting a claim for vote is as simple as connecting your wallet and clicking the "propose winner" button on a specific claim.

This will trigger a final pop-up to ensure that you are absolutely confident about submitting the claim for vote. Starting the voting period for a claim automatically casts your share of the contribution pool as a "yes" vote for that claim, and there is no way to reverse the process because it is done onchain.

Once the voting period is started, you'll see a new voting interface that includes your vote cast as "yes" and "abstain" for all other voters who have not yet participated.

Contributors will then have exactly 48 hours to submit their yes/no votes for the claim via the interface.

Voting is based on the share of contributed funds, not the number of voters.

Example:

• Total bounty: 5 ETH

• Contributor A: 2 ETH (40%)

• Contributor B: 1 ETH (20%)

• Contributor C: 0.75 ETH (15%)

• Contributor D: 0.75 ETH (15%)

• Contributor E: 0.5 ETH (10%)

If A and B vote “yes” (60%), and others vote “no” (40%), the claim passes.

Participation also matters because only participating votes count toward the result. A low turnout vote can still pass if >50% of participating voting power is “yes”.

Example:

• Total bounty: 4 ETH

• Contributor A: 1 ETH (25%)

• Contributor B: 1 ETH (25%)

• Contributor C: 1 ETH (25%)

• Contributor D: 1 ETH (25%)

If A votes “yes” and B/C/D abstain from voting, the bounty will be confirmed since 100% of participating voters confirmed the claim.

After the 48-hour voting period, anyone can call a bounty's “resolve vote” function.

If >50% of participating voters voted "yes", this function:

• Sends all bounty funds to the claimant (minus the 2.5% protocol fee)

• Transfers the claim NFT to the bounty creator

Important:

• If a claim is confirmed, all contributed funds are paid out (even funds from “no” voters)

• The only way to prevent payout is for the vote to fail

A vote fails when >50% of participating voters vote “no.” When resolved, no funds are distributed, and the bounty resets to its pre-vote state.

After a failed vote:

• Contributors can withdraw funds

• The creator can submit a different claim for vote

• Or the bounty creator can cancel the bounty entirely (sending all funds back to contributor wallets)

Open bounties make it possible to crowdfund and verify outcomes without relying on institutions, committees, or trusted intermediaries.

In practice, that unlocks a few powerful patterns:

Things that are too small or too local for governments or large orgs to care about become crowd-fundable with open bounties:

• Fix a broken sidewalk

• Clean up a park

• Document a public good in your city

• Collect local data

Instead of filing requests or waiting indefinitely, people can directly fund the outcomes they want to see.

Example: Improve Public Information In Your Community

Anything that can be verified with a link, file, or artifact:

• Create clips from a livestream

• Write an article

• Create a dataset

• Design an asset

No hiring process. No grant committee. Just: define the output → crowdfund it → verify it.

Example: best spanDEX clip from Ethereum Builders Live

You don't need an agency to get attention.

• Sticker a city with your brand

• Capture photos of your product in the wild

• Run a meme contest

• Stage something unexpected and document it.

Because payouts are tied to proof, you’re able to seamlessly, securely, and transparently pay users for real-world distribution.

Example: Ethereum Is For Finance Poster

Not everything needs to be serious.

• Fund a friend’s tattoo

• Make a silly video challenge

• Send people on IRL treasure hunts

Because the system is lightweight, it works just as well for playful coordination as it does for real-world outcomes.

Example: Amsterdam Sticker hunt

Need we say more?

Example: kickflip world record for DEGEN 🛹

Open bounties optimize for making things happen:

• Funding is permissionless

• Execution is open

• Verification is bounded

• Payouts are transparent

This is what coordination without governance looks like in practice.

Ready to make something amazing happen? DM me with your idea, and we can help fund + promote via the @poidhxyz X page!

We built poidh because we believe you can change the world, and we're here to make that happen.