I would speculate from the at least 3-5 people currently hacking on GitHub (and the rumoured current staffing of 5-20 people), that they already have a massive amount of funding running into the millions of dollars.

If you are asking how to verify (or at least know with high probability) that the coins are destroyed and actually unspendable:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=395761.msg4317890#msg4317890
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=395761.msg4396187#msg4396187

We may need to switch to destroying coins by sending them to an unspendable address.

Good question: What would you need to build a DAC on Counterparty? This would be helpful to note here.

Did everyone see this announcement?

Are there questions about what was launched on yesterday?

Its 1 BTC per address meaning  1 person can "burn" as many BTC as he wants - it would just take him more time.

Вы тут не путайте. Одно дело пройти всю эволюцию по пути набирая громадную аудиторию и доверие в течение многих лет, и другое дело сразу выскочить на финальный этап, в котором точно уже всё распределено\потеряно для многих, так как мы помним, кто изначально взял себе почти всё. И не факт, что биток станет интересным, когда придётся жить на одну комиссию.  Для этого нужно очень привыкнуть к нему в течение многих лет, что сейчас и происходит. А в случае с NXT всё появилось сразу, и всё за всех уже решено. Не всем это нравится, знаете ли.

(1) NXT is dropping also.
(2) i think the the main reason for the drop in MSC value is because masterxchange makes it very easy to sell/dump MSC for the big Exodus holders. (J.R announcement was the "gun-shot" but at list he is doing it outside the exchanges in a responsible way)
(3) for the long run the Exodus holders “dumping” is a good thing. It makes MSC less centralized at cheaper rate for newcomers.

You made my day, thanks 

Unless he sold the private keys, he hasn't moved a single coin yet.

Why would you store wealth in Yuan/Gold, if you have USD for that?
Why would you store wealth in BTC when you have so many other choice?
Diversification maybe?
Why XCP? Decentralized exchange appeal, new wealth repartition, new rarity, sole alt with exactly the same security as BTC, new possibilities.

(glad I'm not in MSC, such happy ambiance in their main post...)

Where I could understand is if stslimited considers MSC and XCP transactional currencies, rather than stores of value. And that is right to an extent; the non store-of-value features of these currencies has been a selling point, so to speak. However, in light of this view, I'd like to point to several posts highlighting the transactional currency status of BTC itself, which the community has (by now) embraced the store-of-value concept. Thus, I don't think at all that the transactional and store-of-value concepts should be segregated at all, at least when talking about these.

Can anyone from the Mastercoin Foundation clear this up? I would also like to know. I think FrictionlessCoin might have brought this up before but I am not sure if this was also his question. I don't think it was answered.

If Mastercoin is the most apt comparison, you may want to review the questions stslimited has been raising about Mastercoin over the last few days in this (Mastercoin) thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=265488.2780.  It seems to me, at least at first glance, that his concerns may have some relevance to Counterparty as well. 

Questions like: what is the functional difference between 10 XCP or 1 XCP or .1 XCP?  How many XCP would someone actually need to use any aspects of this additional protocol layer?  What would require someone to spend XCP or go get more XCP from the open market?