> The problem is how you get started while building reputation, but I'm sure that it's possible.
In case of Mozilla/Firefox: do this while you still have some reputation left. It's literally the one party on the Internet that would have a chance of pulling it off.
I approve of this traditional usage of the term "literally". It's literally correct, but possibly too late - they've been burning bridges for five years.
There's some remarkable sleight of hand in "for every person working on [it]". That's a lot of people required to build a browser. Are you suggesting each of those 5000 users pays $5 multiplied by $NUM_OF_DEVELOPERS, or that you'll need [5000 multiplied by $NUM_OF_DEVELOPERS] users?
The latter. The numbers are not precise, it's just to show that you really don't need a lot of paying people and they really don't need to pay a lot each.
I'm sure you could find 50,000 people in the world willing to pay this. I'm one of them.
The problem is how you get started while building reputation, but I'm sure that it's possible.