"Market cap and valuation is decided by the market, not by the Ethereum founders. The initial price of ether is completely irrelevant because the quantity is directly tied to amount invested"
still: i agree that it is all supply and demand. BUT: they create a target max valuation by saying 30000BTC for 45M or so ETH (1x1500 in average). they view this as a possible target if enough are in.
They could have gone with a target of 3000BTC goal with a limit of 0.5BTC per address or something and and a different exchange rate. it is all about defining the initial number of coins and starting point. THEY DO see the 1BTC@2000 ETH and a 24M valuation as a fair starting point.
I will grant that they are perfectly comfortable with raising far more money than the minimal amount of 500BTC - they're capitalists after all and they want to develop their product, quickly. The more salaries they can pay, the more developers and security professionals they can apply to projects and the faster the platform develops - it's not a bad thing for investors, miners or founders.
Your suggestion to limit per address is completely insufficient to prevent wealthy investors from investing as they wish. There is a minimal cost difference for sending 1000 BTC from 1 address or 2000 addresses. (I'd estimate around 0.2BTC in trx fees and perhaps .1 BTC in paying someone to create the addresses, if the investor lacks the technical knowledge).
My .02 FWIW
Yeah - see this is the deal. If people think Eth is worth 500K - then it will start out being funded and valued at 500K. If they think it's worth 30mil - then it will be worth 30 mil from the get go. My impression is that the founders expect this to take off. And they are comfortable with 500K or 30mil.
People need to do more thinking in terms of "how big is the pie" vs "how much of the pie who gets". The initial investors are largely determining how big the initial pie is. The pie will continue to grow to pay miners at a set rate. I don't get what the big deal is - IF this works there is a lot of money to be made. But not for a few years. The pump and dumpers should probably avoid this one.
I'm still trying to figure out exactly where the initial bitcoins are going to wind up. Hope they release more in the prospectus. My impression was that the usage of bitcoins was going to be completely transparent. But there is so much shit going around I honestly can't tell.
Capitalism is never fair.