Seems to me that it would be a better idea to use the donated funds to hire MaidSafe to work on it. They have a higher level of trust with the community and are best suited to see what needs the most urgent attention.
No offense to latch or his enthusiasm but this isn’t the first time this forum has seen people come in like a whirlwind and leave just as fast.
If latch is interested in writing a good app, there is nothing stopping him from creating the product first and then collecting PtD or offering to sell the source code to make it open source after (just like the rest of the very talented software devs on this forum are doing/planning).
I don’t necessarily think paying MaidSafe to do an app makes sense at all. Why would they write an app they don’t have control over? Nor do they have the dev resources to divert to that project.
I also think calling him out for his rate is uncalled for. Sure, in the UK, and pretty much every country not the US, devs don’t make as much. I’m not saying he is from the US, as I have no idea, but $50/hr is a reasonable price for even a minimally experienced dev here. There are salaried devs with 5 years experience making $100k. Heck, on the West coast, that’s right out of college money. Any contractor in the US makes ~20% more than salaried employees to account for an additional tax burden and insurance, so $50/hr is really a bargain price for a dev in the US.
I have no intention of hiring someone to do coding, since I could do it myself if I really desired to, but if you are hung up on the pay, you can always go on Fiverr, or something, and hire a dev from India for pennies on the dollar. Meanwhile, this guy is here, and seemingly enthusiastic. I don’t like his chances of getting his desired full time gig from this, but if someone wants a project done and has a pile of money to hire a dev, it seems like a reasonable proposal.
It would be probably helpful for the OP to code up a simple chat program, or some other simple task, with a minimal UI, and put the code up under some throwaway GitHub account to at least demonstrate basic competency, though. I understand the desire for privacy, but offering zero proof of ability is a little odd. Seeing as even the most basic tasks showing competency would cost the client $400-500, that’s a decently large ask on faith alone.
I would be happy to produce a small project at my expense.
I invite others to join me in identifying the greatest immediate need having the following properties:
Commonly useful - By building something of value to multiple SAFE users I’ll learn in some detail how others use SAFE.
Simple concept - By limiting the scope of my first SAFE project I’ll learn what I can currently accomplish with Rust and SAFE in approximately 40 hours.
Immediately feasible - By restricting ambition to existing SAFE features, as of the most recent update, I’ll avoid a potential production impediment.