> How much of this stuff was validated through public competitions like for AES, etc.? Curve25519, Ed25519, ChaCha20, Poly1305 have all been entered into compe

> How much of this stuff was validated through public competitions like for AES, etc.? Curve25519, Ed25519, ChaCha20, Poly1305 have all been entered into competitions like AES and usually get to the final round which is usually more about politics than security. The algorithms have also been validated by independents like google who where one of the first to review, use and promote the algorithms. > it looks to me like there is also some fanboyism from programmers with no particular crypto background. Absolutely but we fan boy for him because he has been so widely reviewed with stellar results.