AbuMuslim (أبومُسْلِم)@m19o__
Bug bounty was never a safe career path.
If you do not have your own business or a stable career alongside it, you can easily end up with nothing but an adrenaline rush and a few screenshots of bounty payouts.
People love talking about the $10k bounty they got. What they do not talk about is that by the time they find the next $10k bug, the first $10k is already gone.
Living entirely off bug bounty is stressful. Your income is unpredictable, platforms change, programs change, and good findings become harder to find over time.
Almost every successful bug hunter I know eventually did one of two things: they built a business or they blended bug bounty into a broader infosec career.
Bug bounty is a great way to learn, build credibility, and make extra money. But for most people, it is a better supplement than a long-term plan.
Looking forward, I think the people with deep technical knowledge will have an even bigger advantage. If simple bugs become easier to find through automation and AI, then the value shifts toward researchers who can discover complex vulnerabilities that tools and models miss.
Finding a bug that AI was not able to find should be worth more, not less. Those findings require deeper understanding, creativity, and experience, and they should be rewarded with meaningful bounties.
