We've helped a few and been part of a few.

They work if the project using them has intrinsic value for investors. If not, it's the project offering that failed, not the approach of using a bounty program.

The desire is that by offering bounties, the project will be discovered by interested investors. The risk is hundreds or thousands of forum replies, blog or social media posts, etc. by individuals who are, in the main, essentially just trying to acquire whatever amount of tokens or coins they can from the overall pot, without really getting invested in the project.

This form of speculative involvement isn't a bad thing in itself. If it saves the project real money and still succeeds in raising awareness to interested investors then it achieves its goal. In which case, the work put in by those chasing the bounty is valuable to the project and worth rewarding. The cost of bounty rewards is just the cost of doing business, no more expensive than advertising and in fact would only be picked up by crypto enthusiasts, so really quite targeted compared to regular advertising.

Making sure the project comes to the awareness of the investor types is the hard work. That requires a compelling project offering to be made and real value to be provided from the project existing. Take Restart Energy Democracy for example; that was a great example of rewards, value and a meaningful project.

So yes, they work, for the right project - but that's always the key to success.

CBF