Prize rules

These rules apply to every bounty on Unsolved.lol, alongside our terms.

What belongs on Unsolved

Unsolved rewards useful outcomes, not arbitrary actions. A problem belongs here if solving it leaves something useful behind: an app, tool or website, an open-source fix, a dataset, research with sources, a video or guide that explains something, a design or public resource, or the discovery of something that already exists but was hard to find.

• Great fit: problems whose solution helps more than one person, like a free tool, an open-source project or a clear explainer. These are shown most.
• Fine: a useful outcome mainly for you, like finding a part, identifying something or answering a research question.
• Allowed, shown less: ordinary client work for one business (build my company’s website, design my logo). Try asking for the version everyone could use instead.
• Not hosted: dares, stunts, errands and gigs that pay someone to perform an action rather than produce a solution.

Every problem is checked by AI before it’s published, for safety and for fit. Anything it’s unsure about waits for a person. Where we can, we suggest a version that fits rather than just saying no.

How a bounty works

• Every problem states what counts as solved, what proof is needed, and how the winner is chosen. Read these before you start.
• Winner types: first valid solution (the first that meets every criterion), best by the deadline, first to hit the target, or creator chooses (a matter of taste, picked by the person who posted).
• One winner per problem. The bounty shown is the full amount the winner gets; fees never reduce it.
• How completion is verified is set before anyone starts. The requirements lock as soon as money or a solution arrives, and every solution is judged against exactly those. After that the poster can extend the deadline but can’t change the requirements, so nobody’s goalposts move: not the people working on it, and not the people who funded it.
• The poster accepts a winner, or rejects a solution by naming the criterion it misses. If they don’t review a solution within 72 hours, it’s checked independently and can be paid without them.
• A solver can dispute a rejection once, within 7 days, and it’s then reviewed independently.
• No winner before the funding round ends? Backers are refunded to their card automatically (see terms).

Fair play

• Your solution must be your own work, or you must have the right to submit it. Copying another person's answer disqualifies you.
• You can't win your own problem.
• No fake accounts, vote manipulation or misleading proof. We can disqualify entries, reverse awards and ban people who break the rules.

Not allowed

We remove problems and solutions that involve or encourage:

• Violence, physical harm, threats, or anything that puts the solver or anyone else in danger.
• Property damage or vandalism, trespassing, or interfering with public infrastructure, transport or public events.
• Harassment, bullying, hate or targeted abuse.
• Finding, tracking, stalking or exposing private individuals, or filming people without their consent.
• Exploitation of any kind, including sexual exploitation, and anything involving harm to children, vulnerable people or animals.
• Self-harm.
• Hacking, breaking into accounts, or getting around security.
• Fraud, scams, fake reviews, fake engagement, or manipulating platforms or elections.
• Dangerous misinformation.
• Anything else illegal.

Completing a bounty must never require interfering with unsuspecting members of the public, people’s homes, private property, or businesses, schools, hospitals or other places without permission. Creating something about those subjects is fine; doing something to them isn’t.

Name this website

• Prize: $50, funded by us.
• Closes: TBC.
• Who can enter: TBC. Must be 18+.
• What to submit: one primary name, a one-sentence reason it fits, and your preferred domain if relevant. If you say the domain is available, include evidence of that from the time you submit. Enter as many times as you like.
• How we choose: we pick the name we like best. If two people submit the same name, the earliest submission of a name wins if it is chosen.
• Rights: by entering, you agree that if your name wins, you transfer any rights you have in it to us, and you won't register the domain or the name for yourself. We may also decide not to pick any name.
• Claiming: we'll email the winner, who creates a free account and sets up payouts with Stripe to receive the prize.

Questions about a bounty or a result: joe@unsolved.lol.