When the dev goes AWOL, how come some coins live while others die?

[Lorenzo]

Why is it that sometimes the dev of a coin can just run away and the coin is perfectly fine while at other times, it dies?

For example, Satoshi left the Bitcoin community a couple of years after developing it. Yet, Bitcoin didn't really achieve success until several years after his departure.

When BCNext left NXT, NXT didn't die. In fact, it grew even stronger, more features were added, and its price didn't rise until well after he had left the project.

Then you have coins where the lead dev suddenly disappears and the coin dies soon afterwards. The price plummets, it gets delisted from exchanges, and the network begins to disintegrate.

[robrigo]

It depends on strength of the community backing each project.

What if the project contributors can be hired by the DAC itself? There are multiple marketers and developers hired and looking to be hired through the BitShares blockchain as 100% pay delegate nodes. For the first time in history, a blockchain can pay workers directly through the protocol. Devs leave the project? Hire new ones.