I have no problem with buying DRK on an exchange.
I have a problem when buying DRK on an exchange is the only option I were given COUPLED with the horror scenario that only Masternode owners were creating coins.
I agree with this. There is a problem when asics come along and suddenly only an elite group has the chance to mine though. Personally, I'd like to see a way to keep a ceiling on ability to garner hash power, such as changing the algo once it becomes clear x11 asics are on their way, and to just keep changing it. But I have no idea what is involved, certainly another hard fork, so maybe that's not possible.
Yah, mining and masternodes are hurdles to investing into DRK. In the end though, that's an investor thing and not a user thing. There are other ways of gaining DRK. You can also sell things and accept DRK as payment. Though, at this time, that's not easy. Nobody wants to spend their DRK yet. Adoption is everything.
Until DRK becomes widely used and liquid, it'll be so. BTW, I also think that having a dual system can possibly protect against things like 51% attack with some sort of checking system, but again, that would require a hard fork again....
But ASICS when massproduced become very cheap, much cheaper then CPU or GPU, all the cheap USB ASIC miners are proof of that (and they run with 5 Volts). I am looking forward to that!
That is just the natural progression of any innovation, we should embrace this, not be afraid of it!
Doesn't matter what the unit cost is, rich people will just buy more of them. At bulk discoint.
(Percentages by population, not resources.)