yeah it's a pretty amazing hack. I believe the guy who wrote it is a university student from russia(who also found other holes in chrome) so for him the $60k will go quite a bit further then for some one else and the prestige/job offers associated with it will go even further then that.

When the event was going on, another group called vupen(french company that deals in selling 0day exploits to govts) that found a hole in chrome during that contest refused to give up their method, when offered $120k instead of $60 and their ceo half jokingly said he might give it up for the entire million dollars worth of prizes google was offering