MergeEarn

Fund issues. Reward merges.

Judge / reviewer: Verify the complete public lifecycle in 60 seconds · Live bounty board

Developer? Join the contributor pool with GitHub — no wallet is needed until you actually claim funded work.

MergeEarn turns real GitHub issues into funded NIM bounties. Maintainers fund work, contributors solve it through a pull request, and payout is released only after GitHub work state and Nimiq payment state are independently verified.

Core loop: Issue -> Bounty -> Fund -> Claim -> Pull Request -> Merge -> Verify -> Approve -> Pay

Why MergeEarn is different

Most bounty tools trust screenshots, manual status updates, or a maintainer-operated spreadsheet. MergeEarn connects two canonical sources of truth instead:

• GitHub is the work source of truth. The server validates repository permission, source issue identity, pull-request repository, expected base branch, and merged state.
• Nimiq is the payment source of truth. The browser cannot self-report FUNDED or PAID; the server verifies transaction sender/recipient/amount/execution/inclusion before money-sensitive state transitions.
• AI is advisory only. It can turn an issue into an editable bounty draft, but it never decides whether work is valid or payment is allowed.

Competition release status

MergeEarn has completed a live deployed testnet end-to-end flow through the intended Nimiq Pay Mini App experience:

Issue -> Bounty -> Fund -> Claim -> Pull Request -> Merge -> Verify -> Approve -> Pay

Observed release state on 2026-09-15:

• Production app: https://mergeearn.vercel.app
• Public source: https://github.com/Saidur-droid/MergeEarn
• MIT License: present
• GitHub OAuth: live and working
• Repository and issue loading: live and working
• Nimiq Pay connection: verified in the Mini App container
• Funding: independently server-verified before FUNDED
• Pull request: linked, merged on GitHub, and server-verified before VERIFIED
• Payout: independently server-verified before PAID
• Completed bounty state: PAID

MergeEarn is in the Cycle 2 public judging phase. Keep main CI green, keep production proof reachable, grow only genuine usage, and never weaken the GitHub/Nimiq verification boundaries.

Judge / first-time user path

A judge does not need to sign in first. Open the 60-second proof dossier or the live public bounty board and inspect the real GitHub/Nimiq evidence. Authentication is only needed when taking a maintainer/contributor action.

Contributor signup is GitHub-first: a new developer can sign in and join the contributor pool without connecting Nimiq Pay. A Nimiq address is required later when they actually claim a funded bounty or take a payment/funding action. Public metrics separately track registered GitHub users, new users in the last 48 hours, contributor-pool members, and currently claimable FUNDED bounties.

For an active maintainer flow:

1. Open MergeEarn inside Nimiq Pay.
2. Sign in with GitHub.
3. Select a repository you are authorized to maintain and choose a real issue.
4. Generate or edit the bounty specification and set a NIM reward.
5. Publish and fund the bounty through Nimiq Pay.
6. A contributor claims it and submits the real pull request.
7. After the PR is merged, MergeEarn independently re-checks GitHub state.
8. A repository maintainer approves the verified work.
9. The configured payout wallet signs the NIM payout.
10. MergeEarn verifies the payout before marking the bounty PAID.

For the exact release/demo procedure, see docs/DEMO_RUNBOOK.md.

Competition submission material

• docs/COMPETITION_SUBMISSION.md — Cycle 2 positioning and release state
• docs/SUBMISSION_FORM.md — ready-to-paste submission answers
• docs/PROMOTION_COPY.md — Skool/social launch copy
• docs/DEMO_RUNBOOK.md — demo and E2E runbook
• docs/RELEASE_CHECKLIST.md — final release/submit sequence
• docs/SECURITY_RELEASE_CHECKLIST.md — secret and security release gates

Architecture

• Frontend: React + TypeScript + Vite
• Mini App wallet integration: official @nimiq/mini-app-sdk
• Trusted API: Vercel Functions under /api/*
• Persistence / audit: Supabase PostgreSQL
• Code-work authority: GitHub OAuth + REST API
• Payment authority: Nimiq Pay + server-side Nimiq JSON-RPC verification
• Optional copilot: OpenAI-compatible endpoint with structured manual-safe fallback
• Quality: Vitest + TypeScript + production build + deterministic lockfile + secret scan in GitHub Actions

Security model

The browser never receives the Supabase service-role key or a wallet private key.

• GitHub access tokens are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM.
• Browser session tokens are stored only as hashes.
• OAuth uses a short-lived state cookie.
• Production cookies are HttpOnly, SameSite=Lax, and Secure.
• Important bounty transitions are enforced by application policy and a database transition guard.
• Funding/payout records use idempotency protections.
• RLS is enabled and the browser does not access Supabase directly.
• Repository/PR/payment claims are independently revalidated by the trusted server.
• CI includes a repository/work-history secret-pattern scan.

See SECURITY.md and docs/SECURITY_RELEASE_CHECKLIST.md.

Local development

Requirements: Node.js 22 and a dedicated development configuration.

npm ci
npm run typecheck
npm test
npm run scan:secrets
npm run build

Copy .env.example to .env.local, fill the required values, apply the Supabase migrations, and run through Vercel-compatible local tooling so the /api/* functions and Vite frontend are served together.

For local GitHub OAuth, use a callback matching your local app URL, for example:

http://localhost:5173/api/auth/github/callback

Never commit .env.local, private keys, wallet seeds, service-role keys, OAuth client secrets, session encryption secrets, or AI API keys.

Required production environment

See .env.example. The required contract is:

• APP_URL
• GITHUB_CLIENT_ID
• GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET
• SUPABASE_URL
• SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY
• SESSION_ENCRYPTION_KEY
• VITE_NIMIQ_FUNDING_ADDRESS
• NIMIQ_FUNDING_ADDRESS
• NIMIQ_PAYOUT_SOURCE_ADDRESS
• NIMIQ_RPC_URL

Optional AI configuration:

• AI_API_URL
• AI_API_KEY
• AI_MODEL

VITE_NIMIQ_FUNDING_ADDRESS and NIMIQ_FUNDING_ADDRESS must contain the same public funding address. MergeEarn never stores a Nimiq private key or seed phrase.

Database migrations

Apply migrations in order:

1. supabase/migrations/202609140001_core.sql
2. supabase/migrations/202609140002_security_performance_hardening.sql

Quality gates

GitHub Actions runs on pushes and pull requests to main and must pass:

• repository/history secret-pattern scan
• TypeScript typecheck
• Vitest tests
• production build

Definition of done

A release is competition-ready when the deployed flow reaches PAID, CI is green, production runtime has no blocking errors, the public MIT repository is clean, and final competition assets/links required by the current submission portal are supplied.

Contributing

Read AGENTS.md first for project operating rules, then CONTRIBUTING.md. Payment-state and authorization changes require tests and must not weaken the GitHub/Nimiq trust boundaries.

Contribute for verified NIM bounties

MergeEarn keeps a small set of contributor-friendly issues open for community sponsorship.

Current eligible issue:

• #69 — current judge-flow screenshots in README

Issues #66–#68 were completed in the live product and are intentionally not advertised for sponsorship.

Open the self-updating bounty board: #33

GitHub's contributor discovery page: https://github.com/Saidur-droid/MergeEarn/contribute

Open the live app first: https://mergeearn.vercel.app

A task is a real paid bounty only after the live app shows FUNDED. Sponsors approve their own Nimiq Pay transaction, MergeEarn independently verifies funding, contributors submit real GitHub pull requests, and payout remains subject to the verified merge + approval + Nimiq confirmation path.