It seems that people are getting more and more concerned about who is backing what development team. I can understand that bitcoin was a way to get away from the money powerhouses, but we must not forget that the development also needs recources.
If the dev teams did not need extra funding, they probaly wouldn't be involved with these parties anyway. If this is the only way to get funds for them, they have to take it.
but that can be done.
EG
kick starter for USER features.
(lets put the fundemental protocol code to the side and not have that up for financial debate right now)
but lets say miners wanted some added API stuff
lets say some merchants wanted some api features too..
the core team can do kickstarters for different features (that do not affect the fundemental rules)
even things like a File -> save as feature so people can export privkeys with without needing to go into debug..(command prompts)
i think the dev team would be more incentivised to code if they are funded per micro project (feature) rather than salary based, which we all know doesnt make people rushed into doing much code.. yes i know being on a salary helps relax financial worries compared to being a volunteer and thus gives more motivation to concentrate on code.. but being paid per feature then becomes a bonus or more incentive to add more features that the community will want sooner. and by being kickstarter style, it wont require searching for 1 backer to cover costs.. instead 1000+ people can throw 0.0025($1) each ($1000) for someone to make a simple 'file -> save as' menu and dialog box within days.
ok. i know that you will be about to say that core's ultimate aim is just to be the engine of bitcoin and if people want shiny chassis with leather seats and lots of twiddly knobs they can make their own GUI, and that core doesnt want to be shiny and feature filled..
but there are still some
basic features that fullnodes would like to have which dont bloat core into a shiny knobs and switches category.
lets say you did do kickstarters for fundemental rules.. like if core done a kickstarter for 2mb blocklimit but only implementing it if the community threw in a collectively X bitcoin to cover the few hours of code changes.. and a month of testing (costing the community maybe a couple dollars each)..
or the segwit stuff that benefits miners processing time.. they would pay alot..
and i know you will say that it will raise a debate about "bribery to corrupt bitcoin".. but alteast its more open to the community to pay for what they want, rather than hidden salaries where the community has no clue whats in your employment contracts.