Proof of Burn is used to distribute the currency while at the same time creating trust, reducing envy, and incentivising developers to actually deliver something.

Mastercoin for example sold the 'idea' of something, got a lot of BTC sent to an address they control, but have yet to deliver anything. Ie. They got something for nothing.

With XCP the initial funds are 'burned' so the developers don't benefit from those funds. They only stand to make money if they 'burn' their own BTC and if XCP is useful and popular.

As a result they are highly incentivised to make XCP useful and popular.

So at the moment in terms of an actual working product it is miles ahead of competitors.

(In the medium term though there is a valid argument that having some funds accessible to continually develop
is more desirable, we will have to see how it all plays out.)