If the patent has value, develop it. That's the single best way for others to learn it has value. I'm not saying it needs to be a company, with VCs and funding

If the patent has value, develop it. That's the single best way for others to learn it has value. I'm not saying it needs to be a company, with VCs and funding and what not, but develop it into something demonstrating the value. You already have the patent, so if some one “steals” the implementation without licensing you could resort to litigation. Write about it, blog it, etc. Patents are abstract solutions to a problem. The claims are written to be as wide and generically applicable as possible. Which means that the patent library is useless as a repository of solutions to problems. And it's a minefield if you admit in court that you reviewed a patent and determined that it did not address or solve your problem, because every IP attorney in Marshall, TX will say “See, judge? there was malicious intent to steal my client’s intellectual property!” So then no one who's ever experienced the sharp end of the patent litigation system ever looks into the patent library ever again, because treble damages are never fun. The way things used to work was: you invent a thing, you use it to solve your own problem and/or bring it to market in a larger solution or product. In parallel you patent the invention to prevent your competitors from leveraging your invention, and in return get a limited exclusive license to market and sell your solution. Now it seems all one needs to do is to add "by using the Internet" or "via SMS" or "with Bitcoin" to an existing patent and voila you have a new income stream and litigation cudgel.