The person who submitted the story, and ostensibly setup the site, said this in the comment I replied to:

> Anyone can import an issue to the site and contribute towards the bounty. Whoever submits a pull request closing out the issue earns the bounty.

Imagine this scenario:

John files an issue on Project Foo, submits that issue to Rysolv, and pays some money to "contribute" to getting it fixed.

Joan sees the issue filed on Project Foo's issue tracker, and submits a patch.

According to the statement from the parent comment I replied to, that money would be paid to Joan. But Joan has no existing relationship with Rysolv, and thus they have no way to pay her for the fix.

So what happens to that money?

So far it hasn't been an issue. Even when people aren't on the platform, they usually respond to the "Hey I want to send you $50 email".

But this could definitely be a problem if the site grows and I don't have enough time to track down people.

Another suggestion I've had for abandoned funds is to redistribute across the repo. i.e. A $100 issue for OBS was closed/abandoned/etc, so the $100 is split and the remaining OBS issues get $100/n added to the bounty.

That's an important detail, but in practice probably not too bad. Might need some sort of third party separate from Rysolv to hold funds until they either contact Joan or hit some sort of expiry date.

The bigger question is how do you handle disputes. Who decides that the issue is actually resolved? What if the fix involves multiple people?

Disputes and shares are definitely a problem too.

But "you took my money where did it go" is without doubt a bigger problem - Brave had essentially the same issue, and (rightfully) received a lot of shit for it.

If you don't have a confirmed contact/way to transfer funds, claiming to collect on their behalf is bordering on fraud IMO.

it should remain in john's account at rysolv so he can contribute it towards a different issue.

rysolv is holding money to solve a particular issue, until that money is claimed. if the issue is never solved, the money won't be claimed either. the problem what happens with the money is the same as if the issue is solved without anyone claiming it.

so presumably there needs to be a process for unclaimed money regardless.

brave was collecting money to give to the project as a whole for work already done. they didn't expect that it would be rejected or remain unclaimed.

Many states have escheatment laws about this. So those may complicate their plans if they're planning to make interest off funds in limbo.