Okay so here it is.
My idea makes bounty hunting a two parter and similar to FW.
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Its a career which means it should have NPC’s that you can talk to and given missions to take out high value npcs for cash and maybe Loyalty points (see part 2)
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Make it a faction. Alot like faction warfare. And in order to join this faction you have to have to have a sec status of x amount (well say 5) and a good standing with all main factions (Gallente, Caldari, Ammar, & Minmatar) and cannot join if these pre requisits are not met. This way not just anyone can join and claim a bounty thus exploitation virtually cannot happen since the bounty can only be claimed if you are a member of the bounty hunter faction with good sec status and standings. Now of course you can have an alt in BHF but theres no benefit on trying to raise your pirate alts bounties and just killing yourself because acruing bounty from people takes alot of time so much time that just killing your pirate character or your friend wont put bread on the table.
Now we have a few more things to think about,
kill rights (obtaining them and activating them)
Finding bounties
And NPC involvement
Payout
Kill rights should be bought by the bounty pool. And can only be activated by the Hunter. And obviously not getting a sec status hit when attacking them but combat timer still applies so they can fight back but of course the bounty still gets a sec status hit but yet highsec police and low sec turrets do not intervene. Why? It adds an interesting mechanic to it, take the status hit or surrender if the hunter has you tackled. Because lets face it if they have been an ass enough to get the bounty they shouldnt be let off easy, and this opens a chance for people to put bounties on people or Corps like code and give them a run for their money. Code exploits the system with what they’re doing so this would give players a chance to fight back. With bounty hunters!
Next up, finding bounties. We have a ton of options and i would rather leave that up to CCP but New Eden is a big place so there should be something to help with the search no matter how small that help is, NPCs might help with that. (See next option)
And now NPC involvement.
Basically as i mentioned before you would be able to get npc missions where your given bounties on npc bad guys, basically the secondary factions that all the main factions dislike (blood raiders as an example) and they would funcion like all other npc fighting missions with dungeons and your bounty at the end i would def say the bounty payout should be higher depending on noc level.
Second and i would hope this wouldnt be too difficult. Tie an NPC to the bounty list where you can search people with bounties and see the top 10 bounties and bounty hunters. Now when you search for bounties on this list a little more info can be given. (Like general locations “last seen in region in high sec”) just so you dont have to scour all of new eden to find someone but doesnt give you so much that its easy. Also you could add a bounty search paramiter like im looking for bounties in this region in high sec for example. And you could talk to people about your bounty as if anyones seen him talk to some of the players they have killed. You know bounty hunter work. And on the other side of things players with bounties can bribe people to warn them if there is a bounty hunter after them.
When you select a bounty or multiple bounties for example the npc hands you the kill rights (purchased from the bounties pool when selected for the first time, and id say limit active bounties to 5) and given an allotted time to claim the bounty say a week or two weeks or even a month until the kill right expires (and could be repurchased from pocket if more time is needed) this way kill rights are not handled by any one except npc agents.
Now who knows what the payout should be it would have to be tested first. But maybe it can be affected by your charisma, and npc skills involving pay and negotiations. Just to tie some more skills in aside from combat skills. But like real life it should always be a % of the bounty. And maybe a higher % payout if you involve more people with all the players skills influencing the payout and it being split amongst the players in the fleet when bounty is claimed and the bounty destroyed. NOTE: I DO NOT THINK COST OF SHIP DESTROYED SHOULD EFFECT PAYOUT AT ALL. Make them feel the rage as they get destroyed in a rattle and the payout is only 80 mil compared to their 200 mil rattlesnake. Oh the sweet salty tears 
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Now this is important after you get whatever payout the entire pool of the bounty is depleted and sinked into the bounty hunting npc faction. Which means one hit wonder bounties this is why i will not even suggest pay out because that can only be determined after the economy is settled and CCP makes the necessary changes. And will most likely effect how much people put into that bounty so it can go anywhere in the ball park.
Due to my limited knowledge of programming i can only assume all of this would not be more extensive then some of the updates and programming that has been done lately. Its mostly additions, a few tweeks, and little to no complete overhauls.
What do you guys think?