What a load of unmitigated FUD this thread is.
If I was doing this project I'd handle it exactly the way the dev already has. There's no way I'd hand over the airdrop to an escrow body or anybody else. The only 'escrow' body that has any significance in this is the Icelandic citizens themselves.
Fair enough if people think he might be scamming - I don't, I've no reason to - but who cares ? Just wait and find out. The project is very public so it will either be a very public, exciting initiative or a very public scam and it's clear that even though we don't, many people know the developer's identity.
how the fuck will you individually identify icelanders to distribute the coins?
This can be done using IsLykill (Icekey) for example. The Icekey links a person's verified identity (previously done by the person turning up with personal ID at a bank or having the Icekey sent to their registered legal domicile) to the 'Kennitala' which is their public ID number.
Think of it this way - the Kennitala is an Icelandic person's 'public key', the Icekey (IsLykill) is their private key. So to obtain their Aurora, they would log on to the airdrop website, enter their 'Kennitala' and also enter their 'IsLykill' which would then have a blockchain address and associated private key sent to their email address, home or secure bank-account associated 'inbox' which the banks host. (Or maybe even a pre-configured wallet.dat file).
This initiative is visionary in so many ways. Whether it is successful is just a question of extent. It clearly is going to massively expose the 'emperors clothes' syndrome of the fiat banks by demonstrating that the citizens are just as capable of creating their own money as a central bank is.
It also will be a huge advance in introducing the idea of cryptocurrencies to an entire nation.
I'm sick of people attaching the 'scam' tag to anything and everthing that they happen to be cluless about. Wait and see what the result is before posting all this nonsense.
EDIT: Regarding the valuation, the coin is trading this morning at a healthy $20. So all it's doing is going through all the same machinations as Bitcoin has. It's not been dumped at all. About 10 days ago it was $5. The fact that it has any value at all and that it will entitle every single Icelander to a cryptocurrency 'asset' worth at least $600 - so more than $2000 per typical family - is phenomenal. It is a kind of 'reverse taxation' which isn't going to go un-noticed. The marketcap of the airdrop (Aurdrop !
) itself is now a significant portion of Icelandic government annual tax revenues. So shut up with the FUD unless you know what you're talking about and get behind this.