Meet Aryan Nishad, the student who vibe-coded Bribes.fyi
What's the story
Aryan Nishad, a B.Tech student from Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology, Delhi, has launched a website called Bribes.fyi. The site is a "free, crowdsourced platform" for Indians to report incidents of bribery in government offices. The reports can be categorized by department, city, and state to provide an overview of corruption trends. The platform has gone viral in India, receving over 2.5 million requests within 10-12 hours on Monday.
Functionality
How to report a bribe on bribes.fyi
Bribes.fyi lets users report bribery incidents by providing basic details like the government department involved, the alleged bribe amount, and the city where it happened.
You can also mention if you paid or refused the bribe.
The site says this process takes about a minute, after which your report is added to a publicly searchable database with identifying information removed.
Impact
Over 3,700 reports logged so far
As of now, Bribes.fyi has logged 3,713 reports from over 1,000 cities.
The site emphasizes that this data comes from a self-selected sample and shouldn't be seen as a measure of corruption across India.
Users can also browse these reports to compare trends across departments and locations, with the information being publicly accessible.
Reception
The site has received mixed feedback online
Bribes.fyi has a verification mechanism that lets users confirm patterns if one department or office gets multiple reports.
The site has received positive feedback on platforms like Reddit, with one user calling it "This is going to be the most consequential platform ever built."
However, some have raised concerns about the site's verification process, questioning what "verified" means since it only requires users to confirm their experience is genuine.
Funding
Bribes.fyi has secured backing from Dr. Aniruddha Malpani
In a LinkedIn post last week, Nishad revealed that bribes.fyi has secured backing from Dr. Aniruddha Malpani, an IVF specialist, angel investor, and anti-corruption activist who reached out after discovering the platform online.
"Still very much a one-person project with a lot left to figure out. But having someone who's actually worked in this space believe in it—that's not something I take lightly. More to come." Nishad wrote.