The problem with i0coin and all the alternatives, is all the sites that accept trading in them have very high cash out fees. Therefore, they are worse to mine than Bitcoin, since you're just going to turn them to Bitcoins anyway. You a powerful mining rig to generate lots and lots of them and get lots and lots of BTC to make even a high rate of something around 1.25 worth it.
https://btc-e.com only charges 0.1 % transaction fee
You can't trade NMC or IOC on that exchange
Hmm, they've only recently stopped trading IOC, which is strange, as that was doing pretty well... better than IOX.... hmm, damn.... I need to find another exchange for that... gits !
PROBLEM solved:
Bitparking I0C exchange:
https://i0exchange.bitparking.com/main0.4% transaction fee