The difference between this coin and CureCoin is that CurCoin requires ASIC miners to mine their coin to help keep the integrity of their coin. The problem with this is that it is still possible to attack the coin if you move more miners over to this coin. As for FoldingCoin is built on the http://www.counterparty.co protocol which is built on top off the Bitcoin network and is secured by Bitcoin miners.

And in response to the premine, i understand that premine is bad. The only way to make this coin possible to help the Folding Network is by premining though as you are not mining a coin directly. Their are 2 reasons why you should trust the coin though:

1. I am actively trying to get Stanford to control the coin directly therefore it is an established organization you can trust
2. ASIC have destroyed GPU mining and their are no other options