Ok, so this is how this played out...
It is totally obvious to anyone following this that MaidSafe team trusted MasterCoin Foundation to set up their IPO for them (aka David Johnson of MasterCoin Foundation/BitAngels)
MSC was trading at around .08 BTC before this.
Why would David J of MSC foundation think that it's a fair way to run an IPO to give more than twice the ROI in MSAFE for MSC holders than for BTC holders?
obviously because he had a lot of MSC.
Then David J of MSC foundation acts surprised that most donations came through MasterCoin when they gave double the reward to MasterCoin.
Either David J of MSC foundation is a complete and total idiot for expecting that this would be a fair and smooth way to operate an IPO or he is a scammer/opportunist/profiteer.
Personally I don't think David J is that much of an idiot.
David J of MasterCoin Foundation SHOULD BE IN PRISON. If you think this was above board, I have bridge to sell you.
All this is separate from the value of MaidSafe software.
MaidSafe has software that they worked on for a long time on, but I think monetizing it with a cryptocoin is new to them and they are obviously new to crypto and didn't see things that most people saw would be obvious.
Maidsafe has to defend MSC now because it is holding a ton of MSC... too bad for such unethical behavior. Holding a fair IPO in BTC (much more liquid than MSC) would not have been hard, if you think the purpose of this crap was anything other than profiteering, get real.
It is normal for a VC to get favored treatment when equity is distributed to the public. In this case, the mechanism of choice was MSC.
Is it criminal as you accuse? No, happens all the time in every public offerring,
You should grow up before you accuse people of crimes. Is this fair? No, but that is just how these deals are struck in the real world. Live with it!