I think this is trying to solve a problem that doesn't really exist.
I'm an early adopter, I've been mining since launch (few hours after launch), and during the first 2 weeks I basically sold all the coins from the first 48 hours because at that time the coin didn't seem to have any future. I sold them at ridiculous prices, like 0.05 per 1k XCO, and I'm sure most people who mined during the first days did the same or dumped already, because for many days the coin didn't look like having any future, so after the coin went to exchange markets people dumped huge quantities for quick profit.
Most of the coins I'm holding now are from the 2nd - 3rd week until now, at that time it was easy to mine a few hundreds per day with enough hardware, it was fair and a personal decision to mine this coin or any other coin, I'm sure 99% of the addresses in the top rich list are from people who mined at that time and people who invested in this coin when it was 0.00005BTC per coin, no one should complain about this, it's the way it works, some people decide to risk and invest or mine a coin when it's worthless, hoping that after some time it gets some value.
Just to give you an idea of how it was 2 weeks after launch (I'm the one trying to sell):
http://gyazo.com/2f236bef06096dc66354cdac9435b42fHere is the thing, does that even matter? Even if the coins are distributed, even if early investors already sold... if Darkcoin has the
stigmata of being an instamine coin then that is just one more hurdle that DarkSend must overcome. I think that is what Evan is worried about and why he made the suggestion.
Now let me be clear, an Airdrop would obviously be terrible, but the idea that the first 48hrs are a not an issue just because everybody in this thread (i.e. the people who have already invested and are hoping for a price increase) thinks so is shortsighted.
Don't forget, there are other anon solutions in the works as well. Things are not likely to be as simple as DarkSend is first, WE WIN, price goes TO THE MOON. I can easily imagine a scenario where the adoption of Darkcoin post DarkSend release is slowed by the instamine issue, and Zerocoin, already being more well known, steals the main market share once they release.
tldr; Airdrop is a bad idea, but it is naive to assume that there is no problem with the first 48hrs and that DarkSend will obscure any and all issues with the coin.