[Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Woody:
I'm sorry but I don't agree with this part of your statement at all. ROM developers don't need to "up their game". The entire development scene is based on exploits and nothing more. Without these exploits, you wouldn't have a custom recovery, you wouldn't have multiple kernels at your disposal (nearly all outperform stock boot.imgs), you couldn't do basic or rudimentary modifications to your devices and you certainly wouldn't want your hard earned money exposed due to these exploits. Without an exploit, none of these are possible (speaking in the most basic sense).

Offering the SafetyNet checks to ROM developers is like giving the keys to the kingdom away to anyone who can click a keystroke. What I mean here is that while we are Power Users and various "experts" in our fields, we are only a glimpse in the eye of the whole Android world. Making this a freely accessible thing would only invite issues, problems and gaping holes in securities in place to protect you and your money. Google is looking at this from a security scope for people who are more than likely not even registered on a forum like this. Maybe on a college campus or a trendy hip town, but ask any normal folk walking around town what Root is or what is a kernel. Guarantee that they will have no idea what you are talking about or if they do, it will be because of Mr Robot or similar show/program (SU was featured in episode 2). It is these safety checks that allow us to feel that our money is secure while it is being digitized. The other option is the leather in your back pocket. More on this below.

Allowing the community to vote ROMs into review is ludicrous and I probably wouldn't want to run it if it was reviewed. Yes this is XDA-Developers, but we are not the only game in town. There are several sites that are high profile that have development forums of their own and that doesn't even include options in the second layer forums of the net. Google provides us with factory images to flash for Nexus Devices. They don't do this for any other device with the recent exception of some Sony devices and MM previews. So, lets say that we could let some ROM developer who has a big following and gets voted into the Google-sphere for acceptance. Does that device(s) the ROM is built for have the Pure Google Experience? Is that device a developmental model? What is the ROM base? If the device has an OEM skin, shouldn't they get a say in the vote process? Let's not forget that Google skins it ROMs just like any other OEM and has it's own OEM-like requirements (i.e Play Services). Don't get me wrong, I understand the thought process, but the development community is a private and personal stand that is about sharing and extending what OEMS can't or won't. Opening that for Google Verification would be counter-productive to keeping private ROM development forward facing and pushing the limits. Once you put that verification in process, the ability to make your own decisions based on preferences of yourself or users is immediately given over to pass said tests.

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For Android Pay to be a viable contender against Apple or Samsung Pay, it has to be able to be marketed to the vast majority of Android users. Samsung does have a large stake in the Android market, but they are not the only OEM that Android is built for. LG has recently flourished over that past years with arguably the best non-Samsung flagships include 3 Nexii and 3 in the G-series. Then there is HTC (who happen to be right in the middle of their company's death rattle), Sony, Motorola, Huawei, Asus and even smaller market phones like Alcatel. So for Google to make sure that this new feature is fully functional for people to see it as a viable resource, they have to cater to all sorts of people whose taste in devices would have to coincide with different monetary, location, functionalities, living condition and all sorts of other demographics let alone governmental standards and practices. It isn't about ROM developers or kernel tweakers. It is about a viable product that Google can offer to the everyday user. Unfortunately we are not that everyday user. We are the ones who push the limits and live on the cutting edge of development.

It is a give take and at this point & everyone needs to ask themselves if they are willing to have Root

or

Digitize their money. I'll take the former, but that is me. Your decision is yours, but personally if I had a wheelbarrow's load of money in the account, I would want it as secure as possible. That doesn't mean that there isn't room to work with the modding community to find some sort of common ground, but this is a fledgling application and as such, there is always room to grow.

**These are my opinions as a USER and not as a member of XDA-Developers' staff.