Maybe it's low if the $100 is coming from a single person that needs it desperately. But if the fix brings big value to the community as a whole, we'll like see more people chipping in as the incentive grows.

Exactly, I'd probably contribute small amounts to multiple issues/projects in hopes that others also contribute enough to motivate someone to apply the fix.

Often I want to fix the issue myself, but something prevents me from doing so. I might not be familiar enough with the programming language, or I might not have enough time right now

Perhaps if several small payments are combined on the same bug, it could be paid for.

Bug 1 (25% pledge): XXX set a pledge of $100. $300 more needed to fix the bug.

> Even as a full-time employee you're probably making north of $90/hour

Assuming everyone is making 180k is maybe a bit naive, no?

Perhaps PRs could be marked with a bounty amount that would notify maintainer/owner when a threshold of $ has been met.

Actually that's not necessary, with Merge to earn it's theoretically possible to send whatever amount to only the contributors of a PR (instead of all contributors).

Imagine putting money into a vault that gets released to contributors on PR merge.

Opensource developers don't get paid. You're saying that paying them money demotivates them because they can earn money by not doing opensource work? The reality is that people paying a bounty sends a message that they really want this problem to be resolved or feature implemented. Maintainer burnout is minimized because people don't spam bounties on things they don't care about.

But here's the thing- most developers are salaried. I'd love extra work than can be done on my time for a bounty even if it's way lass than my salaried rate. It'd be the perfect way to moonlight.