In less than a month OldPirateBay.org has grown out to become one of the most popular torrent sites on the Internet. The site has become the default Pirate Bay replacement for many, and the operators hope to keep it that way with a $100,000 cash injection for developers, moderators and uploaders.

Just a few days after The Pirate Bay raid the people behind Isohunt.to decided to come up with a temporary replacement, Oldpiratebay.org.

While the site’s operators are not affiliated with the original site, they wanted to offer a hideout for wandering TPB users. This hasn’t been without success as the site is now pulling in millions of visitors per day.

Despite its popularity the OldPirateBay still lacks many of the features The Pirate Bay had. There is currently no upload feature for example, nor is there a moderator crew to keep the site clean.

The Isohunt.to team previously called on the community to improve the project. This has already led to several improvements through the OpenBay’s GitHub repository and with a big cash injection they hope to facilitate the development.

“In order to boost that process we are announcing an unprecedented move,” Isohunt.to announces today.

“$100,000 for developing OldPirateBay.org, are you ready for that?! Anyone can take part in the website development and moderation which will result in public recognition. Also addition to your pay check would be a nice surprise,” they add.

The money will be shared through a contest. Starting next month $10,000 in cash prizes, paid in Bitcoin, will be awarded to the developers who contribute to the top features.

From March 1, OldPirateBay will have upload and moderation capabilities. This will include a ranking system where the top contributors and moderators can divide $5,000 in Bitcoin per group each month.

“The idea behind this message is to empower the community to create OldPirateBay.org as they see it. And we’re ready to reward the most active participants along the way,” the Isohunt.to team notes.

While the site was started as a temporary replacement it will remain online if the Pirate Bay does indeed return next week. This creates an interesting situation as OldPirateBay already outranks the original site in Google’s search engine.

The people behind OldPirateBay believe that the community should decide the long-term fate of the site. If there’s enough interest to keep the site growing then they are willing to stimulate this process.

“The main idea is that community should develop the site in the way they want. So if there will be enough initiative the site will be developed by people. We just want to stimulate it,” Isohunt.to concludes.

A full description of the contest details is available at the Oldpiratebay.org site.