Any exchange could have enabled the same crowdsale thing.
This is true. But it wouldnt be decentralized, which is kind of the point ;-)
Craig
Uh.... explain to me where the 'decentralized' part comes to in play here?
Anyone can read the transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain, issue their own crowdsales, etc. At least four different Master Protocol implementations can decode and encode such transactions, and the logic behind them is agreed upon by the participants of the ecosystem.
No central authority handled this crowdsale. MaidSafe used the Master Protocol on top of Bitcoin to designate how many MSAFE would be returned automatically upon receipt of MSC, broadcast it to the blockchain, and funds started rolling in. No servers, no exchanges, someone just needed to "stuff arbitrary information into a bitcoin transaction. ;-)
Craig