I'm afraid you are incorrect regarding the claim that this public competition and its conditions of entry are illegal in any way. It is very similar to a cash back promotion - "First person to buy up 10 Dell Computers will get 1 computer free - offer expires in 12 hours". Announcing to "the world at large" that a reward will be given for buying X amount of Karma and meeting certain conditions it is not manipulation - it is a competition for the coin. Manipulation would be making such a competition with NO intention of ever supplying the reward! That is what is known as "unscrupulous conduct".
The competition is open to anyone and everyone, only one person can win and that happens to be the first person who meets the conditions and provides acceptable evidence of so doing.
No one is being led to believe anything that is false or misleading - All pertinent details were set out, all conditions clear.
I'll give you another fictional example of "manipulation" though just so we are all clear on the difference:
In a private message to a very large trader I say the following "Hey man, If you buy up 1 Billion Karma I'll give you an extra 100 Million - Ill post on the forums that a dump is coming and tell people to get those sell walls up so we can rip them off!" - No one realizes this is going to happen, no warning, no time to remove their walls - then the coins are bought up and people realize they sold too low.
That's a classic manipulation scenario in the crypto world - However, as crafty as that may be it is not illegal either for it is not illegal to buy very large quantities of items for sale at once and it is simply bad luck for the sellers who placed their items for sale at a much lower price than they could have otherwise achieved. It is also not illegal to make statements of opinion as to where you think the market is headed - its known as 'trolling' generally when it is considered FUD or nonsense generally but still, it isn't illegal to say such things. Even in the strictest of regulated securities markets - Crytocurrency is not one - it is very rear for anyone to be found guilty of insider trading (that is, having information regarding a security that is not made public to the world at large and then acting on that information) because even if someone has inside knowledge on an upcoming movement in a market it almost never can be PROVEN that they acted on inside information and not on their own data and research.
Again, none of that matters for Karmacoin is not a regulated security and no securities regulations apply to it.
Investors do not have a duty to disclose that they are going to buy up shares in a publicly traded company, they see the sell orders, place their bid and its done. If they did have a duty then no one would ever be able to buy anything! For every time the buyer announces they are going to buy the seller will put their price up. The nature of the market, any market, is sellers place their offers and buyers accept those offers. There will always be sellers who offer to cheaply to buyers who would be prepared to pay far more! That's how people make money trading - If that was not the case there would be no Stock Market.
Now pump 'n' dumps are something totally different and this is important: A pump n dump is buying up large quantities of stock WITH THE INTENTION of then dumping them when the price rises and buying them back cheaper. You will notice this competition rewards buying Karma - NOT dumping it, in fact, dumping as committed by anyone at all has the effect of 'vitiating' the terms of the competition rendering it voidable at my behest.
In it's simplest terms - It is a reward for the first person to invest the quantities required to raise the price and hold it at the specified level for the specified time period. If someone else decides to dump their coins (which by your logic would be 'illegal' manipulation by virtue of being the opposite of buying up coins which raises the price rather than lowering it) then the competition is off.
To be fair to those who did the work but had it spoiled by someone who dumped on them I said I would give a 20% consolation prize to that person. Now that is a matter of 'good faith' and a gesture that is separate to the main competition in that it requires the competition to be void before it comes into effect. It is what is known as a 'co-lateral contract' at law.
However - All of this is moot however because unfortunately the time has expired and the competition has now ended without a winner.I did think it necessary to explain however because I know you meant no harm Alphi but I would not want others thinking there was something illegal in the competition. I would not create an illegal competition and certainly not encourage participation in an illegal competition.