Darkcoin is one of the more interesting coins to me.

A competent, innovative developer not afraid to use his real name.

A proprietary anoymizing system , Darksend.

X11 chain hashing algorithm which is super secure, ASIC resistant and runs cooler on GPUs and with less wattage than Scrypt. X11 is being copied by other coins.

A difficulty retargeting system, Dark Gravity Wave, that is being copied by other coins.

As other coins steal Darkcoin's innovations, it focuses the spotlight more on Darkcoin.

I see better days ahead for Darkcoin.