Hi, all - I posted this on bitcointalk, but figured it's most relevant here.  For those who don't follow things over there, I developed the improved Nvidia mining code for scrypt coins (LTC, etc.) last month.

I have a working prototype of an nvidia-based GPU miner for Protoshares, and I'm convinced that it's not going to utterly disrupt the ecosystem - the GPU is better than CPU, but not so much so that a good CPU won't compete.  At least, until other people improve upon my code.  Also, as you'll see below, mining with a GPU is very power efficient (and the $ mined per kilowatt-hour spent is better than for any other coin).

I don't want to go the route of long-term maintaining this or releasing closed-source builds that siphon off a portion of the mining income, though I like that model a lot.  Instead, I'd like to ask for tips _now_ in advance of releasing it open source.  I contacted the Protoshares company about their bounty, but heard nothing yet.

Is there a kickstarter-equivalent in bitcoin, or a recommended best way to do this?

Here are the numbers I can put together.  Note that there's still work to be done to make this thing friendly.  Right now it's about in the same state as the Nvidia miner code I released for scrypt/LTC.  Gunky to compile, not platform friendly, etc.

Dual GTX 690s:  2400 c/s at 115W at 10% CPU.
650Ti:  330-340 c/s at 1% CPU.
Macbook Pro with GT 650M:  200 c/s.
Tesla K20c:  ~800c/s.

As with my previous release, this may be Kepler-only, but I think the algorithm will work on Fermi.  Part of why I want to open source it is to let the community build upon it.  I know that there's more performance that could be tuned into it - probably on the order of 30% but maybe 200%.  I also think it's likely that there's an existing GPU implemention running privately, and this release would level the field a bit.

Let me know what you all think.

  -Dave