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Never say never. Bitcoin certainly doesn't have a critical mass, and won't until a majority of the world is using it. We've seen protocols replace other protoco

Never say never. Bitcoin certainly doesn't have a critical mass, and won't until a majority of the world is using it. We've seen protocols replace other protocols (HTTP pretty much replaced Gopher), and incumbents squeezed out by upstarts (WordPress pushed aside MoveableType, for example). New can replace the old. In any event, the mission of Bitcoin appears to replace government-issued currencies which most certainly have a critical mass! Bitcoin just so happens to be the most popular cryptocurrency right now, but relatively speaking it's not all that popular. Its deflationary nature might be its downfall and there's certainly room for something to take its place, and it's very myopic to say that just because something appears somewhat popular now that it will remain that way forever.

rubinelli 13y ago
Have you seen those physical bitcoins? It's possible to create something similar in digital form, a coin that "wraps" a wallet with a known amount of bitcoins. This would allow a new and better currency to offer "backwards compatibility" with bitcoins and a migration path.
aminok 13y ago
Gopher and HTTP came out at around the same time and were contenders from the beginning. This is very different than the situation with cryptocurrencies, where Bitcoin came out long before the competing derivatives, and where mindshare and market capitalization of alternative cryptocurrencies has always been insignificant compared to BTC. Bitcoin could be more properly compared to HTTP, and alternative cryptocurrencies as protocols that are slighty modified versions of HTTP that no one uses.