Cha-ching! — Turning GitHub Issues into Web3-Powered Bounties
Built at ETHGlobal. Made for Open Source. Backed by Blockchain.
Open source software (OSS) powers the internet, yet many of its contributors struggle to get paid. It’s an irony we’ve all grown tired of. What if fixing GitHub issues was more than just a passion project? What if every pull request could put crypto in your wallet?
Introducing Cha-ching!, a bounty platform that transforms GitHub issues into crypto-paying missions. Skip the logins. Forget the gatekeeping. Just devs, issues, and smart contracts doing their thing.
The Problem: OSS Is Broken… Financially
Despite being the backbone of most software ecosystems, open source projects face serious sustainability issues:
Contributors aren’t rewarded — monetary or otherwise.
Web3 projects rarely pay in their own tokens, despite having treasuries.
Matching devs with issues they can solve is still inefficient.
GitHub doesn’t support payments per issue/PR.
Maintainers burn out from managing community input without financial support.
This gap between innovation and contributor incentives is exactly what Cha-ching! aims to solve.
Our Solution: Cha-ching!
Cha-ching! flips the script by letting maintainers post bounties on GitHub issues — all powered by smart contracts. Here’s how it works:
Project maintainers add a bounty (in crypto) directly to an issue on GitHub.
Bounty hunters (developers) go to the Cha-Ching website and get personalized issue recommendations based on their skills (with the help of AI!).
They fix the bug or feature and submit a pull request.
When the PR is approved and merged (by a maintainer!), the smart contract releases the payment automatically — no accounts, no middlemen.
The result? A GitHub-native bounty workflow that bridges the OSS and Web3 worlds.
Under the Hood: Tech Stack
This is not your average weekend project. Cha-ching! is a robust DApp stack:
Layer | Tech |
|---|---|
AI | OpenAI + MongoDB server-side logic for dev-issue matchmaking |
Smart Contracts | Solidity on Optimism for gas-efficient bounty escrow & payout |
Back-end | |
Front-end | |
Infra & Storage | |
Dev Experience | GitHub Agent interaction, natural language UI |
Security & UX First
We took extra care to build Cha-ching! for both trust and ease:
Smart escrow: ensures funds are locked until a PR is approved.
Natural language filtering: helps devs find relevant bounties fast.
No-login hunting: start contributing right away.
AI assists: in curating and matching issues to the right contributors.
Automation: Smart Contracts combined with Agents help reduce the overhead for maintainers.
Why Cha-ching! Wins
Here’s how we’re different from other bounty or freelance platforms:
Feature | Cha-ching! | Other Platforms |
|---|---|---|
GitHub-native | ✅ | ❌ |
No login required | ✅ | ❌ |
Crypto-native payouts | ✅ | ✅ |
AI issue matching | ✅ | ❌ |
Escrow smart contracts | ✅ | Maybe |
Open source aligned | ✅ | ✅ |
Built at ETHGlobal 🏆 | ✅ | ❌ |
We’re not reinventing freelancing. We’re unlocking a sustainable future for open source.
Market & Vision
The opportunity is massive:
The open source economy is projected to hit $50B by 2027.
There are 100M+ GitHub issues live today.
DAOs and Web3 startups are outsourcing features & bug fixes.
Hackathons and ecosystems need GitHub-native bounty flows.
The next step is multi-chain support, more token options including stablecoins, and an even better user experience.
Built at ETHGlobal
Cha-ching! was built during the ETHGlobal Prague Hackathon by the AxLabs team — we barely slept, our submission video was last-minute and incomplete, but we had a blast. Despite the chaos, we shipped a real working product that we believe has real value and deserves to be taken further.
Along the way, we met old friends, made new ones, and got incredible support from the teams at VLayer and Filecoin (Protocol Labs) to integrate their solutions into our stack. It was a great reminder of how collaborative and energizing this ecosystem can be.
Join Us!
Cha-ching! has the potential to go far beyond its current form. We are working to evolve it into a scalable and user-friendly tool that open source communities can truly rely on. To make that happen, we’re actively exploring grants and partnerships to support its continued development and real-world adoption.
🌟 Are you a maintainer? Post a bounty and reward contributors without the usual friction.
🧠 Are you a bounty hunter? Find issues, contribute code, and get rewarded in crypto, fast and friction-free.
🏛️ Are you a Web3 foundation or protocol? Partner with us to streamline your developer grant distribution and help build a more sustainable open source economy.
Hackathons spark ideas, but it takes a community to turn them into real-world tools that developers trust and enjoy using.
Let’s turn pull requests into payouts.
Cha-ching!
