What problems exist with the alt coin Namecoin and what can be done to fix them? I like the concept of using a key/value store that is separate from the Bitcoin chain (preventing bloat), but utilizing the Bitcoin hashpower for security.


What are the dominant issues working against Namecoin today?
What can be done to correct those issues?
If you were to reboot the Namecoin project, what changes or improvements would you make?
First, NMC is not worthless, it have a value and is traded on bitparking ( https://exchange.bitparking.com/main )  and btc-e ( https://btc-e.com/exchange ), with decent daily trading volume; people saying nmc is worthless are just people wanting to attract you to other altchains( most of them being scams imo ) .

Second, namecoin is an opensource network, it cant really die as long as people use it.
 Also, namecoin is the oldest and most serious alternative coin ( altchain ) to bitcoin.
 NMC price have gone down with merged mining ( increased supply ), but merged mining also made namecoin very secure and long lasting.
 As long as someone will maintain the software ( https://github.com/namecoin/namecoin ) namecoin will rock as the oldest and best altchain.

Real issues are :


possibility to store small files in the blockchain, could lead to increased blockchain size ( see https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=145278.0 and https://github.com/runn1ng/namecoin-files )
small community, not enough tools, websites, graphical client . . . )