I don’t have any direct experience to suggest, but for your funding model you seem to be mostly concerned that you wouldn’t make much money after releasing the work due to piracy. Perhaps you could consider the crowdfunding model instead, collect the money first! It also has the benefit of implicit voting for most-wanted projects.
This model would be similar to the notorious Denuvo DRM cracker Empress, who is essentially the only person who can break this gaming anticheat. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_(cracker) . I will warn they have quite some drama about them, but the financials seem to be working.
I would also consider what your work could be useful for / value proposition for others. The trimmed-down Wii consoles come to mind. Perhaps a small group of people would heavily value a netlist of their favorite circuit that they could recreate even smaller with more layers/modern techniques.
This model would be similar to the notorious Denuvo DRM cracker Empress, who is essentially the only person who can break this gaming anticheat. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_(cracker) . I will warn they have quite some drama about them, but the financials seem to be working.
I would also consider what your work could be useful for / value proposition for others. The trimmed-down Wii consoles come to mind. Perhaps a small group of people would heavily value a netlist of their favorite circuit that they could recreate even smaller with more layers/modern techniques.