I have to agree. Masternodes should be a priority especially for a coin like CIF that has a good team behind it and vision.
I think if they wait for Chaincoin and TerraCoin to come up with a solution it will never come.
How did Dash fix the problem?
Dash has just released 0.12.2.3 which hopefully addresses some of the issues we've found. We've brought on a new developer who will review both the Dash code as well as our code and who will be working with the project going forward. If all concerns are addressed then we'll be able to issue a core update and masternodes will be online.