> "The AES competition was a tournament designed to select the best candidate from a collection of ciphers submitted by the world's best cryptographers."
Fair enough. And the focus is exclusively on the algorithm (which is good).
> "The Twofish bounty was a bounty that guaranteed payment to the best technical critique of a very specific, well-defined cryptographic primitive"
"the best technical critique" is still subjective.
In the context of a crypto competition that sort of bounty is a way to try to get more attention to your design, therefore making your candidate more likely to be selected. Many designs are rejected due to lack of analysis at the time of the selection process. It's better to pick a well-analyzed primitive than a not-so-well analyzed one that looks more solid but is more of a gamble.
Fair enough. And the focus is exclusively on the algorithm (which is good).
> "The Twofish bounty was a bounty that guaranteed payment to the best technical critique of a very specific, well-defined cryptographic primitive"
"the best technical critique" is still subjective.