Grants, Bounties, and Hackathons

Grants, bounties, and hackathon prizes are meant to fuel innovation. But too often, they become a source of frustration—delayed payments, unclear timelines, or shifting token values that leave both recipients and organizers feeling shortchanged.

Imagine winning a grant worth seventy thousand dollars in crypto today, only to unlock your next milestone months later and find the value has dropped—or worse, the funds still haven’t been sent at all. These aren’t edge cases. They’re common stories across the web3 space, and they break the trust that's supposed to power open collaboration.

It’s time for a better way to fund projects—one that’s transparent, accountable, and fair from start to finish.

The Current Pain

Funding programs often try to be structured and fair—splitting grants into milestones, tying bounties to deliverables, or distributing hackathon rewards in tiers. But even with the best intentions, the process breaks down.

For one, volatility makes planning nearly impossible. A project might receive a grant denominated in a volatile token, only to see its value swing wildly by the time the next tranche is unlocked. Sometimes the recipient wins, sometimes they lose—but in both cases, the uncertainty creates tension and risk.

Then there’s the human bottleneck. The person approving a milestone often isn't the one who can release the funds. You get delays, emails, endless follow-ups. Sometimes funds are released at the end of the month by a CFO who’s juggling multiple responsibilities. Other times, things fall through the cracks entirely.

And in hackathons or open bounty programs, it’s even worse. Participants complete their work, but months can pass before rewards are sent—if they’re sent at all. That lack of trust erodes the very thing these programs are supposed to foster: creative energy and community engagement.

Enter Smart Escrows

Smart Escrows solve all of this.

By locking the full grant, bounty, or prize amount into an escrow contract upfront, everyone gets peace of mind. Organizers can commit to milestone-based distribution without worrying about market fluctuations—because the funds are already secured. Recipients can see that the funds are there and trace how each tranche will be released. And with stablecoins like USDC, there’s no need to worry about volatility.

Even better, Smart Escrows make it easy to separate responsibilities. A grant committee member can approve a milestone, and a different party—or even an automated process—can trigger the fund release. No bottlenecks. No chasing down signatures or payment approvals.

And for hackathons? It’s a game-changer. Organizers can ensure that sponsor contributions are held in escrow ahead of the event. That means participants aren’t left waiting on delayed payments, and organizers aren’t left chasing sponsors who promised rewards they never actually sent. It brings clarity and accountability to the entire process.

How Trustless Work Makes It Easy

Trustless Work makes all of this simple.

Our Smart Escrow infrastructure lets any grant program, bounty campaign, or hackathon integrate secure, transparent payments without writing smart contracts or managing wallets manually. You can define milestones, set approvers, and configure who releases funds—all through a clean API or open-source templates.

Funds are held in non-custodial, on-chain escrows, visible to all parties. When a milestone is marked as complete and approved, the release is triggered with a signature—no delays, no middlemen. And because it's built on Stellar with stablecoin support, transactions are fast, cheap, and globally accessible.

The Power of Roles

To make all this work seamlessly, Trustless Work introduces a concept that’s simple but powerful: roles. Every action in the escrow lifecycle—like marking a milestone as completed, approving it, or signing off the fund release—is tied to a specific role.

These roles can be assigned to different people or entities depending on how your program is structured. A project team might mark a milestone as done, a grant committee member might approve it, and a finance admin or automated process might sign off on the release. There’s even an optional dispute resolver role, in case disagreements arise about whether a milestone was truly met.

This separation of duties helps reduce delays, prevent mistakes, and build accountability into every step.

In this example I have assigned Roles to different parties. Alice, the sponsor is the one that deposits the funds, but not the one to approve a Milestone, or Release. Bob, the grant receiver sees the funds are locked in Escrow and gets to work, one he completes the first tranche he marks the milestone as done. (Milestone Marker)

The Approver, in this case would be the one who does some acceptance testing. Some maintainer who does QA, or checks the the deliverables match. He signs the approval, or does not (no action required) while Bob fixes something, or raise a dispute if something goes off with the agreement. The payment release could be done by another tester, or the program manager. In this case, the party who is assigned the Release signer.

Real-World Frustrations

I’ve felt this pain firsthand.

I’ve organized hackathons where one of the sponsors never followed through on their prize commitment, and our foundation had to cover it. I’ve participated in hackathons where payments were delayed for months, or worse—never arrived at all. And in grant programs, I’ve had tranches delayed for so long that by the time they were released, the token value had dropped so much that five thousand dollars became twenty-seven hundred.

Whether you're a participant, organizer, or grantee, this isn’t just a theoretical issue—it’s real, and it’s frustrating. That’s why I believe escrows for funding distribution are not just useful—they’re necessary.

Start Building Fairer Funding Programs

If you’re running a grant program, managing bounties, or organizing a hackathon, you don’t need to deal with this kind of uncertainty anymore. With Trustless Work, you can lock in funding transparently, automate milestone-based payouts, and make sure everyone involved knows exactly where the money is and when it will be released.

Visit trustlesswork.com to learn more, or head to dots.trustlesswork.com to start building your first escrow flow today.