I really do not get 'the no lifetime fees' crowd.
What is up with you people? Someone making too much money, according to you?
If yes go pay it yourselves, or get up and organize it as a UIA funding that you can buy into...
PS
And keep in mind that I say that while I have only 3 prime suspects for this secret investor - CNX being one of those.
So I've been thinking a lot about this and, like most things after further consideration, my opinion is evolving. Stan's parking garage metaphor is good.
I like the idea of crowd funded UIA to pay for features even if it is a crowd of one. It may play out like this (which may have already been posted..this thread really blew up quickly)
1) Someone wants a feature and gets in contact with developers - in this case CNX
2) CNX says they'll do it for $45k and creates a UIA with a market cap of $45k
3) The UIA earns all fees generated by the feature (minus standard network fees) for life
4) The UIA can be bought entirely by one person and they would earn all the royalties.
This gains the following:
1) The person(s) that paid for the feature reap the rewards whenever it is used forever.
2) The engineering resources to maintain the feature going forward are fungible.
3) Since a UIA is liquid it gets away from the "issue" of one person receiving royalties forever.
IMHO this is the perfect solution to crowd funding features, rewarding those that are taking the risk, and leveraging the existing platform to make it all happen.