Beyond the Bug Bounty Programs Trilemma: Bounty 3.0’s Blockchain-ZKP Approach

Bug bounty programs play a pivotal role for companies in identifying vulnerabilities within their digital products through collaborations with a global network of security researchers. In this paper, we introduce the bug bounty trilemma challenge—a concept that entails the delicate balance of security, privacy, and rewards within these programs. We then delve into “Bounty 3.0” as an innovative approach, harnessing the transformative potential of blockchain and Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs). Blockchain technology ensures un-paralleled transparency, decentralization, and immutability in bug reports and token-based bounties, while ZKPs establish a secure, anonymous, and confidential reporting process that safeguards privacy. This approach acts as a bridge, seamlessly connecting traditional bug bounty programs with block-chainWeb3 solutions, effectively addressing the bug bounty trilemma.