One of the reasons that there is not a rush of outside developers creating Counterparty add-ons is that the CP devs cannot offer bounties, like pre-mined coins can. They are not sitting on a stash themselves, and did not reserve such a horde for development. I think the lack of a pre-mine or IPO is a good thing, but at the moment it handicaps the development of an entire system around XCP. So how can this problem become a virtue?

One answer is Swarm. This is precisely the kind of situation that the kickstarter-like crowdfunding platform is made for. Unfortunately, Swarm won't be ready for awhile. Is it possible to create something shorter term that is custom-made for raising escrowed funds (to create bounties) that would encourage outside developers to create functionality for the Counterparty system? Could the CP devs do the escrow themselves, say, by creating an asset which anyone could buy? What if they created, say, asset CPGUI, with specific terms about what a GUI would require (code-wise), how the coders of the GUI would be paid, etc? How would buyers/holders of this asset get paid back?

Is any of this making sense, or are there logical/logistical problems with trying to fund development by issuing such an asset? Would the original CP devs welcome the work of outside developers?