CanYa Acquires Bountysource — Boondoggle or Brilliant?
Last year, in the midst of looking for quality ICOs, I discovered CanYa. And I was so excited about what CanYa was doing and how they were running things, I also decided to join their ICO marketing efforts. I got rewarded, in CanYaCoin ($CAN) of course — for blogging and tweeting about CanYa. And even after helping out with marketing efforts on other ICOs, I can honestly say that CanYa’s ICO is still the ICO I would run if I was running an ICO.
One thing I didn’t write about previously, and which I think has slipped a little bit under the radar, is CanYa’s acquisition of Bountysource. The irony is that when I first heard about this acquisition during the ICO, I was a bit skeptical. After all, for several days leading up to announcement, the team had been hinting about something which would be bigger than ICO-related announcements like the 40% Bonus Dolphin Tier and CanYa HODL club. Buying another company didn’t strike me as something to get all excited over. Rather than a groundbreaking and unprecedented move, the Bountysource acquisition felt like a major letdown. I was not impressed (yet).
What is BountySource?
The Bountysource website asks the question: “Do you want to become a bounty hunter?” A bounty hunter? Most people in America remember the A&E “Reality TV” show Dog the Bounty Hunter, which followed Duane “Dog” Chapman and his wife Beth as they tracked down fugitives from justice.
If you figured out that Bountysource isn’t looking for that kind of bounty hunter, you would be correct. However, if you’ve been involved in ICOs, you’re probably think of “bounty hunters” as people (like me) who cruise Telegram and Bitcointalk looking for opportunities ICO promotion opportunities, somewhat like online marketing mercenaries. Although they have now added a few crypto-related bounties, including blockchain development and ICO marketing bounties, Bountysource was initially created to so that any open source software developer could offer a financial “bounty” to other open source developers as an incentive to resolve bugs (often called “bug bounties”), or contribute to a particular feature on a software development project.
In fact, the great thing about Bountysource, is that anyone can post a bounty to help pay for any open source project, even ones they didn’t create. Think of it as crowdfunding for software development. If you want support an existing software project, you can even contribute to an existing bounty in order to provide more incentive for a developer to take on that project first. (Does this remind anyone else of how gas fees provide incentives on the Ethereum blockchain?)
This model makes Bountysource perfect for startups, including blockchain-based startups and ICOs. If you’ve around been startups for any length of time, you know that even the most skilled development teams simply don’t have the resources and time to hire the talent needed to do everything in-house, at least not at first. Bountysource gives teams access to over 45,000 registered software developers, and the site continues to add users every day.
Why does Bountysource matter to CanYa?
CanYa has a revenue-generating product based on a functioning mobile app and web portal for some time, unlike many ICOs which are nothing more than a great idea and a whitepaper. However, one criticism was that CanYa really didn’t have all that many users and the platform is currently only available in Australia. Bountysource not only gives CanYa immediate access to a much larger international user base of active developers, their model also dovetails nicely into CanYa’s long term vision of becoming a “peer-to-peer marketplace of services for digital nomads to work in their own time, on their own terms.” Additionally, the Bountysource platform is already set up for bounty pay outs in both fiat (using PayPal) and cryptocurrency (Bitcoin), so I can image the $CAN token option won’t be far behind.
Are you starting to see why Bountysource makes sense for CanYa?
Final Thoughts
Along with purchase of Bountysource, CanYa has formed many strategic partnerships. And now that $CAN token sale is complete, CanYa has thousands of active community members all over the world have a vested (financial) interest in CanYa. But none these facts guarantee either short-term or long-term success. So I don’t want to make wild claims that just because CanYa has access to nearly 45,000 additional users and a platform to incentivize open source software development, that somehow $CAN will become more valuable than Bitcoin. But what I do want to say is that I am VERY encouraged and believe the CanYa team is in a position to take advantage of the amazing opportunities that the Bountysource acquisition affords them.
Full disclosure: As a CanYa HODL OG Club member who just got his first $CAN airdrop, and continues to be rewarded with $CAN tokens for things like this blog, I’m going to HODL my $CAN tightly and get ready for the next airdrop in a few months and the airdrop a few months after that, even as I watch their progress on the development of the CanYa platform and their continued pursuit of additional business partnerships. (Plus, I am really looking forward to the annual HODL conference where I can say thank you the CanYa team face to face!)
But that’s what I plan to do — this blog is NOT investment advice about what you should do! As always, anytime you read information online (especially when it comes to cryptocurrency projects and ICOs) please do your own research and decide for yourself! Here are some ways to do that:
- Visit the CanYa website: https://canya.io
- Check out latest CanYa news: https://medium.com/@canyacoin
- Read the CanYa blog: https://blog.canya.com/
- Join the CanYa Discord Channel: https://discord.gg/CanYaCoin
- Join the CanYa Telegram group: https://t.me/CanYaCommunity
UPDATE: As I was finishing up the first draft of this blog, the redesign of the Bountysource website went live. It has a much cleaner, more modern UI and is branded to look like a part of the CanYa family. Check it out:
