I'm actually guessing that he has a set amount that Nicehash is already willing to pay him and he will release the code no matter what, but this is an attempt to get even more money out of things and Nicehash has agreed to give him a time period to raise money as well, as he doesn't mention anywhere how much Nicehash is willing to pay him and how much we need to 'fill in' for Nicehash.

If he used a all-or-nothing funding service like Kickstarter, but for bitcoin or a escrow service so we get money back if he doesn't release it I would totally help chip in. I haven't found anything like that though.


As far as a open market goes. I think it would. There isn't a marketplace to sell kernels and the devs always appear to think they'll get ripped off in someway, none of them seem to be interested in actually making a place to sell their stuff too (like a thread). A open market would also attract competition if they see how much people are selling things for.

Although I don't have the resources of Nicehash, someone would have to commission a 'lockbox' miner system, where kernels could be safely inserted into it and are much less likely to be reverse engineered or the devs will bitch.