Kusama Bounty Cleanup - First Steps

[Rom1.io]

I’ve been looking into the current state of Kusama’s bounty system. Some proposals have been sitting untouched for months, while several active bounties have had no recent activity and still hold unused funds.

I’m starting with two referenda:

- Reject proposed bounties #34, #35, #36, #37 and #39: [Proposal 1]

These proposals have been waiting for 13 to 18 months without moving forward. Some have already been superseded by other funding decisions. Rejecting them clears them from the queue. The requested budgets were never allocated; only the proposers’ bonds go to the Treasury, as with any rejection.

- Close inactive bounties #19, #27, #33 and #38: [Proposal 2]

These four bounties hold approximately 8,972.70 KSM in remaining funds. #27 has never had a child bounty opened, while #19, #33 and #38 have no open child bounties and have seen no recent activity (#33’s last pending payment was paid out to its beneficiary rather than taken back). Closing them returns the remaining balances to the Treasury, where the funds can be allocated again; curators’ deposits are returned.

Each referendum includes the exact call, its hash and a dry run against live Kusama, so anyone can check what it does.

Bounty Health: a dashboard I built that reads every bounty from the chain and flags what is stuck, at risk or left to clean up.

This is only the first step. Other issues still need attention, including funds that have arrived but have not yet been recorded for, and some multi-asset bounties. I’ll follow up with the relevant proposers and curators to clarify these cases before considering any further action.

The goal is simple: **get Kusama’s Bounty Health back to green.**

I’ll keep this thread updated as things progress.

[Luuu]

Great!

[Rom1.io]

Update: Multi-asset bounty alerts

While working on the cleanup, I also got in touch with the teams involved to address the remaining alerts on the multi-asset bounties.

The three alerts were:

• MA-00 - 159,917.32 DOT not recorded on the account: the bounty was closed, and the funds were returned to the Kusama Treasury.

• MA-01 - Final payout impossible: the bounty account was missing 0.9996 DOT, preventing the final payout.

• MA-02 - Unrecorded payment: the 29,321 DOT payment for child bounty #2/5 (0xZK_EMAIL_MILESTONE_2) had already been sent to the beneficiary but still needed to be recorded.

Following coordination with the teams involved, all three issues have now been resolved, and Bounty Health shows all three alerts as cleared.

The two cleanup referenda #669 and #670 are currently ongoing. Once both pass and are enacted, the initial cleanup will be complete.

I’ll keep this thread updated as the work progresses.

[RustSyndicate]

Hi, would like to flag this, that the bounty for " POLKADOT <> KUSAMA BRIDGE SECURITY BOUNTY" this is a pot of money that can be used to motivate security researchers to find and report bugs instead of attacking the bridge. All other bounties i think it’s fine but this should regain. New security researchers that finds bridge bugs on kusama ah should be able to use this funds. Have you spoken to the curators? instead of just shutting it down? it would be better to provide an alternative pot of money for kusama bridge bug bounty.

[Rom1.io]

Hi @RustSyndicate , I agree that security bounties are important. The goal here is to clean up inactive bounties and get a clearer picture of what’s actually being used.

This bounty has been sitting there for over 13 months without ever being used. If there are people willing to curate a bridge security bounty, they can put together a clear plan with updated objectives, new curators and propose it through OpenGov for the community to review.

The point isn’t to stop funding bridge security, but to make room for an active initiative with a clear plan.

[Luuu]

I reached out to bounty curators of bounties whose closure might raise questions. Asked them about their opinion and whether there is any plan. They confirmed that we can close them.

[Rom1.io]

Update: Initial cleanup completed

Both cleanup referenda have now been enacted on-chain.

• Referendum #669: Proposed bounties #34, #35, #36, #37 and #39 have been rejected, clearing five stale proposals from the queue.

• Referendum #670: Inactive bounties #19, #27, #33 and #38 have been closed, returning 8,972.70 KSM to the Kusama Treasury. Curator deposits have also been returned.

Together with the resolution of the three multi-asset bounty alerts reported earlier, Bounty Health now shows all five tracked bounties as healthy, with no outstanding alerts.

This completes the initial cleanup. I’ll keep monitoring the bounty system and look into other issues as they come up.

Thanks to everyone who helped clarify and resolve these issues.