Auroracoin is a pump and dump. Crypto currencies are illegal in Iceland (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_Bitcoins_by_country) and on top of that how do you imagine, a person or a group of people not affilitated with a government to have access to the required infrastructure to actually spread the coins among citizens? You need means of veritifaction and authorization of every single person.
Even if crypto currencies were legal in Iceland how do you imagine donating money to people for free? You can't giveaway money to people for free without the government wanting taxes from it. It's no such simple feat.
The biggest misconception is that the coin is somehow tied with the Icelandic government where in reality it isn't. It makes such claims on the official page but this is false.
They are not illegal in Iceland. You can't buy and sell Bitcoin with other foriegn currencies. You can mine and hold Bitcoin. And we'll be giving them Auroracoin for FREE which is perfectly fine. Their laws are capital controls to ensure the Krona isn't dumped.
And gifts aren't taxed in Iceland.
Since Bitcoin IS considered a foreign currency in Iceland, so are other cryptos. Now the problem is what is considered a gift. I am sure there are laws that draw a line. Is $700 USD per every citizen (which is millions of dollars) considered a gift? I do not think so - but to be sure one would need to familarize himself with the local laws. $700 USD is serious sum by today's exchange rates.
Actually Bitcoin and any other crypto currency is completely legal in Iceland, yet. However an Icelander may not buy any crypto currency unless he does so for the Icelandic Krona (ISK). So for an Icelander it would be illegal to buy Bitcoin, Auroracoin og any other crypto currency for foregin currency like USD or EUR.
Mining, owning, trading that is all ok. It's just because of the capital controls you are not allowed to buy foreign currency to buy crypto currency because then you could move all your ISK to USD and the capital controls would not work.