> I also liked GinerAle's idea that maybe it could be used to match individual donation funds to reach the fund goals quicker.
Yes, the problem that arises is gameability. People may be able to take advantage of such an arrangement. It could work, just depends how it is setup. I think if there are no particular pre-set rules it becomes less able to manipulate. People can see the funds are there, but there is no "if I do this I can get these funds" angle to wile your way around the process. Say if an issue makes it to the "funding required" step and any of the dev's feel it's particularly important or needs priority, they can then publicly assert it as such and the core dev's are required to make a public vote (maybe requiring unanimous consensus?) to allocate funding to it. The funds then go from the general donation pool to the escrow of that funding request.