Fee or nofee, open or closed source it wont make any difference because there is already open source cuda kernel, just noone is interested as of devs to improve it for free Smiley
Open source miners are dead.
Some will ...
Most won't. Show me ONE time where donations or incentives were given freely and actually made a difference to the developers of ANY miner. NONE! We have had this argument for YEARS, and me more than anyone has tried to get donations (look at the DBM system for example, or CWIgm that we attempted) to help these developers. A handful of miners will donate, whereas the vast majority won't. Mining has become a greed riddled practice, just like what Crypto has fast become. This was never the goal for us that DO work towards a better Crypto future, but the vast majority of those that mine, mine in the most greedy way, that I must admit that you make some very valid points.
The one thing I will totally disagree with you is the point of Open Source Miners being FAR from dead. They will exist, they will always be developed, but not many will be optimized for free any more due to the abovementioned reasons. Greed has no place here in Crypto, but has a huge effect on it. As can be seen almost everywhere you go in CryptoLand.
Pity!
#crysx