I started that story years ago, and since you posted it, I've forced myself through it ( it took how many days? 3? LOL).  

I gotta say, now I have more sympathy for the people who really thought Dash was a scam (back in the day) Thank goodness Dash is well diffused (distributed) and I don't think such shenanigans are possible to any degree.  It might be true that someone is pumping Dash, or it may be simply the ebb and flow of the tides.  And yes, after reading all that, I am still a true believer in Dash.  Our team, our know-by-their-real-names team are just too awesome, the planning and structuring of the project too well thought out, the project too far in the lead to have anything but great hope.  The only thing that can fail us is an outright war against the powers that be.  Will the public be swayed? everywhere?  No, that's a foolish direction for even the strongest of governments.  The writing is on the wall, this is the direction of the future.  The cat is out of the bag.