I read about NeuCoin ages ago and was tempted to try it as they gave away some for participating in surveys and other activities. They were aimed at tipping musicians for their work. You could earn some by locking it into a special account for a set period. I must still have a few thousand in there. It's probably not worth much.
Yesterday they announced that the foundation will be shutting down:
the Foundation will destroy all of its remaining NeuCoins and dissolve itself. At this point, NeuCoin will be entirely decentralized with a total supply of NeuCoins equalling approximately 1.5 billion, all of which will be unrestricted.
They reckon it can carry on without them:
In any event, NeuCoin will continue to exist going forward as a fully decentralized cryptocurrency with a much lower coin supply. In an optimistic scenario, the Jango team might be able to solve the problems with freemium distribution. We all hope for this outcome that could lead to widespread consumer adoption of NeuCoin and the development of an organic ecosystem.
There are hundreds of cryptocurrencies out there and it's inevitable that many will go nowhere. Only a select few will take off. At least they had some real purpose in mind. Too many are just traded speculatively. There are some creative people out there with great ideas and it's still a very young industry. Of course Bitcoin has built up massive momentum and will probably be relatively safe for years, but the others are barely known about outside a small community.
Be careful where you invest, but if you believe in something then go for it!