If they claim to be happy making a dollar a year
They should ask for a voluntary donation of $20 or whatever, and if 5% of users give that then they've got the same amount of funding.
Better yet, surely there are some corporations who want an alternative to Microsoft browsers but don't want Google to slurp their data and would choose this over Firefox for the privacy guarantee. A few large corporate subscriptions at a few bucks a head including priority support would go a long way toward insuring their future.
I've been wanting to drop Chrome as my "backup" browser for when Firefox (or more likely, my ad blocker) causes problems on a site. Maybe Vivaldi is just the ticket. Who knows, if I like it enough I might even switch eventually.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
