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by TomAnthony 4521 days ago
It is easy to think that but I think that isn't the case for a few reasons:

- You only need one person to report it, and so if Nefarious Nigel has found it and is planning to use for profit, then Sweet Sarah find it and reports it then it worked. I imagine this is the case for the majority of bugs (but can't prove it).

- $5000 isn't in a different order of magnitude to Google's rewards, and they paid out several million dollars. This demonstrates that it does motivate people but also that adding a 0 on to that would likely have a far larger impact on revenue than Nefarious Nigel and his evil plans.

- I think a large number of smart people would (rightly) be scared about taking the black market route, but are motivated when they know their isn't a legal risk. Or put differently the risk to reward ratio ("pot odds") becomes worth it for this value for legal prize.