It will also depend upon whether they are willing and able to outbid all the other scrypt coins for mining services to secure their blockchain, which is a losing proposition for all non merged mined coins since the more such coins there are the more leverage the miners have to extort higher and higher pay for picking any particular coin to momentarily mine - momentarily meaning until some other coin decides to fork out even more to pay them to come defend it instead.
I don't see it like this.
Although that's technically true, we are in the growth phase of all cryptocurrencies. As long as there's a reasonable amount of hashpower around to protect the ones that developed a significant level of socio-economic network effect during that growth period then the sector as a whole will grow.
The fact that there are theoretical (and in some cases practical) risks just has to be accepted because there are so many other priorities in play.
It's the "socio-economic" part that's significant here, not whatever technical specs the coin has. There are all kinds of 'anchors' for cryptocurrencies to gain a foothold into the world financial system. I agree that 'national coin' is possibly not a long term prospect, but it definitely is at the moment because it provides for an early-adopter scenario that's far more realistic that the global one. Watching Bitcoin try to gain a foothold in commerce is like watching paint dry. The global market is just far too huge to make that leap at once on a such a scale. On the other hand, micro-economies like Iceland with capital controls and a disaster of a fiat currency are much more fertile ground.
They also happen to be a highly educated population who are into new technology in a big way and may just take to this like ducks to water - especially if they see the value start to rise.
Look at it this way. They've now got 2 places to put their money instead of one:
[1] - a highly levered proxy money that gets devalued on a periodic basis by their government by up to 20% at a time
[2] - an unlevered base money with a limited supply who's value is likely to start accruing from here
The coin's only been out a few days and already it's seen casual use in more sectors than Bitcoin did in 3 years. There's huge potential for a virtuous cycle of commerce, value accrual and promotion being set up. Forget about talk of "dumping for bitcoin" or "dumping for dollars". Were talking about ordinary people here who don't wile away their lives on cryptocurrency exchanges or reading bitcointalk threads. It's easier for them either just to hold onto it or spend it on some gardening stuff that they can pick up from half a mile away.
Add to that the fact that the airdrop will be continuing for up to a year and EVERYONE's going to get some. This project isn't disappearing anytime soon - it's only just starting in my opinion and if it goes anywhere socially then it will attract all the hashing power it needs to "protect the network".
If you know anything at all about Icelandic people and economy, this is an extremely interesting situation. It should be supported instead of dismissed because if it works it will light a fire under Bitcoin and the whole viability of cryptocurrencies around the world.