Steve Kinney wrote: If a market is willing to pay enough to support and grow the project, it can be done. Are there potential partners and large scale consumers for "top security through total transparency" to make an open hardware project viable today?
One potential route would be to broker a deal to pool the resources of specialty hardware integrators who already have a market base for high security "solutions." The Open Office project pulled off something similar years ago, obtaining major funding and support from IBM and others who wanted Microsoft out of their hair. So, who wants a shot at defending some of their digital assets from outfits like NSA and GHCQ, badly enough to pay for it?
The first place I would start shopping this "crypto anarchist" project around would be State security services - pretty much any small to mid-sized outfit not in BRICS or FVEYE could be a potential market for auditable scrambler phones for military commanders, senior elected officials, diplomatic corps and double-nought spies. From there to high performance servers and workstations would be a natural progression.
I haven't looked at how the Black Phone folks are doing lately, but that looks like the kind of product line where open hardware might find its first viable home.
Another consideration: One needs not necessarily own the facility where the chips are made: ISO quality assurance programs already in place support client access for audit and validation. A contract that specifies the client's intrusive presence during every phase of production and handling would cost extra, but a QA process that assumes the presence of hostile actors on the shop floor is definitely possible. Such a process would also be needed at a dedicated facility: One must assume the presence of hostile actors there, too. :o)
That's basically all part of the idea. And that some serious multi philosophical combination of hardcore Stallman Ghandi Cpunk Riseup Coder Maker Opensource Auditor like motherfuckers all build, run and observe the joint from the ground up as essentially a crosschecked incorruptible thing that anyone can look at. Todays shops are a mutable system of hierarchical employee paychecks, payoffs, closed door privacy and backroom games.