> A you-only-get-it-when-successful 20,000$ budget from Google is
> insulting, considering the perhaps massive time investment from
> the researcher. [...] and yet they only pay a nice researcher 20
> grand? You can't even live on that. Researchers aren't just kids
> with no responsibilities, they have mortgages and families

People who want to make a living helping to improve Google security
are welcome to apply for a job :-) We have a remarkably large and
interesting security team.

The program simply serves to complement that (and some other,
contract-driven efforts), and it works for quite a few people who see
it as a way to do something useful on the side, and get compensated
for it, too.

Now, I have done a fair amount of vulnerability research in my life, I
do have a family and a mortgage - and I still wouldn't see $20k as an
insult; but I know that this is subjective. In that spirit, you are at
liberty to determine whether to participate, and how much time to
invest into the pursuit :-)

Cheers,
/mz

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