iOS 7 Jailbreak: Hackers to Be Rewarded for Working Jailbreak
New crowdfunding website, isios7jailbrokenyet.com, spurs budding talent to jailbreak iOS 7

The jailbreak community and the dedicated team of iOS hackers are in for a pleasant surprise as a new crowdfunding website, isios7jailbrokenyet.com, has taken birth with the idea of donating money to fund an open source jailbreak for iOS 7.

As iDownloadBlog reports, the crowdfunding project is a joint venture proposed by Chris Maury, the founder of accessibility company Conversant Labs, who is joined by three other members of the project including Cory Doctorow (Co-editor of Boing Boing and DMCA Activist), Kyle Wiens (Co-founder and CEO of iFixit), and professor Biella Coleman (Author of Coding Freedom).

The project has already garnered over $3278 (at the time of reporting) and further donations will be accepted from interested jailbreak fans worldwide via Stripe.

The prize money will be awarded to the first developer who releases the highly-anticipated iOS 7 jailbreak with a pre-defined set of constraints for eligibility. The eligibility criteria for claiming the funds are as follows:

  • The jailbreak must work for the iPhones (4S, 5, 5c and 5s) running iOS 7
  • Must support the latest version of iOS (7.0.4)
  • Be untethered and accessible to casual user
  • Be available for public release free of charge
  • Must be released under an OSI-approved license

The brains behind the crowdfunding project explain the reason for taking this initiative:

"We strongly believe that users should have the freedom to control their devices. We wanted an open source jailbreak for iOS 7, giving users the capability to install what they want on their own devices and the ability to audit the code they're using to do so. Jailbreaking is also critical to ensuring that the disabled are able to use their mobile devices as easily as possible. So we started a prize for the first people who can do it."

Though the prize money being offered for a successful iOS 7 jailbreak may not influence the evad3rs team, it will surely encourage the budding young talent to work harder and earn some cash as well as reputation in the jailbreak community.

All donations may be contributed to the prize pool via isios7jailbrokenyet.com, while evad3rs continue to work on the most eagerly-awaited jailbreak yet.

Meanwhile, here is what Jay Freeman aka Saurik, founder of Cydia, has to comment on the launch of the new crowdfunding website for iOS 7 jailbreak release:

"The primary problem I have with this website is that it attempts to change the dynamics from one of "people who do things that are fun to make devices more open" to one of "people who do things to win cash prizes". Meanwhile, it changes the dynamics in the minds of the people contributing: normally, people contribute after the fact to the teams that built something that they found of value; under the model of this website, people contribute ahead of time, and then hope that the thing that is released works for their specific device (or even "runs on their computer", etc.), and if it doesn't they are kind of out of luck."

Head over to the official Reddit thread for more details on Saurik's viewpoints. The hunt for the most elusive iOS 7 jailbreak has just got bigger, while veteran hackers may do it for fun and reputation, the others will root for monetary gains.

To sum it up, the chances of successfully jailbreaking iOS 7 now looks brighter than ever with more hands joining forces for the highly challenging task of breaking the jinx with iOS 7.