Bounty Proposal: Sub-Bounties Extension Implementation

Proponent: RTTI-5220 (GLVeryFRbg5hEKvQZcAnLvXZEXhiYaBjzSDwrXBXrfPF7wj)

Date: January 2021

Requested allocation: 1530,00 USD / 18.43 KSM

Proposed Curator Reward: 2% of total - USD 30,00 / 0.37 KSM.

Short description: The idea of a sub-bounties extension aims to give more flexibility in the use of the pallet for curators to reward completed tasks without closing the parent bounty. This will contribute to achieve one of the ultimate goals of the pallet: to budget the networks' treasuries allowing bounties to extend their life cycles.

Context Of The Bounty & Problem

In its current implementation, the bounty pallet allowed us to experiment with delegating the Council's responsibilities to a curator, defined as an expert in the topic the bounty touches. You can find more information about the current implementation here.

However, the pallet does not allow the creation of sub-bounties by the curator (the address with agency over the funds of active bounties): if a bounty includes in its scope of work an N number of tasks, the payout to the implementers can only be executed once all tasks have been completed by awarding the bounty and closing it. This restricts the use of the pallet to small-sized bounties for a short amount of time.

The idea of a sub-bounties extension aims to give more flexibility in the use of the pallet for curators to reward completed tasks without closing the parent bounty. This will contribute to achieve one of the ultimate goals of the pallet: to budget the networks' treasuries allowing bounties to extend their life cycles. Other goals of this extension include:

To minimize tracking & execution management overhead to council members & improve governance efficiency.
To allow tracking & granularity in high budget allocated funds.
To allow iterations by starting a big proposal with a minimal viable fund and top-up based on progress if needed.

In the model we envision, a sub-bounty can only be opened using funds from an active bounty. This model allows the curator to allocate a specific amount of funds from the active bounty to a sub-bounty, and reward the task after completion by calling award_subBounty. After the call is confirmed, the sub-bounty is closed and the specific amount of it is deducted from the total allocation from the bounty (that stays open).

For a detailed description of the extension specification, budget and tasks included in the bounty, please visit the full proposal HERE.

Notes

Although the Kusama Council has the responsibility of deciding on the curator who will take the role if this bounty proposal is approved, we would like to suggest Bryan Chen (the original implementer of the bounty pallet) to review and evaluate the tasks' completion; this is the main reason why this extension proposal is submitted for discussion as a bounty proposal: Bryan has shown expertise in all necessary topics related to the bounty in order to develop this role.

You can find the current implementation, along with the original ideas and discussions by the community in the links below:

Original idea - here
Current implementation - here
Community discussion - here
Bounties implementation spending parameters - here
Final review on current implementation by the community - here

Proposed Sub-bounty API & Signature

Sub-bounties Extension: design discussion notes #7959 - here

SubSquare has proposed a new extension to the bounty pallet that allows curators to create sub-bounties. This extension will give more flexibility to curators to reward completed tasks without closing the parent bounty. The proposed extension aims to achieve the ultimate goal of the pallet, which is to budget the networks' treasuries allowing bounties to extend their life cycles.

The proposed extension will minimize tracking and execution management overhead to council members, improve governance efficiency, allow tracking and granularity in high budget allocated funds, and allow iterations by starting a big proposal with a minimal viable fund and top-up based on progress if needed.

In the envisioned model, a sub-bounty can only be opened using funds from an active bounty. The curator can allocate a specific amount of funds from the active bounty to a sub-bounty and reward the task after completion by calling award_subBounty. After the call is confirmed, the sub-bounty is closed, and the specific amount of it is deducted from the total allocation from the bounty that stays open.

The proposed extension specification, budget, and tasks included in the bounty can be found in the full proposal. Bryan Chen is suggested to review and evaluate the tasks' completion if the bounty proposal is approved.

Links to the original idea, current implementation, community discussion, bounties implementation spending parameters, and final review on the current implementation by the community are provided. The proposed sub-bounty API and signature can also be found in the proposal.