> How much of this stuff was validated through public competitions like for AES, etc.? Some of it, with some caveats. Salsa20 was a result of the estream com

> How much of this stuff was validated through public competitions like for AES, etc.? Some of it, with some caveats. Salsa20 was a result of the estream competition. This was organized in a similar fashion to the AES competition, although it didn't get nearly as much attention. Chacha20 is only a slight variation of salsa20. Curve25519 was discussed extensively in the IETF. It wasn't a formal competition, but it was an extensive discussion and there was definitely motivation from others to point out any issues that there might be with curve25519.