I don't propose Bitcoin replace Starbucks cards, much less bank-wires.
I support the paradigm of Bitcoin as a new kind of 'super-gold' that creates its own category on the spectrum, supplanting all previous forms of money:
That might not work out as you imagine. I would wager a lot of money that it would fail miserably, and if Bitcoin was stuck at 1 MB of transaction data, an altcoin blockchain will simply replace Bitcoin as the market leader as users opt for it rather than paying higher fees.
I also don't want a Bitcoin blockchain that is a "super gold" transfer system, that only large financial institutions can afford to directly access. I want Bitcoin to be what the Bitcoin white paper promised:
https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdfAbstract. A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online
payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a
financial institution.
An ultra expensive "super gold" transfer system that only large financial institutions can afford to directly access on behalf of their end users is exactly the opposite of a peer-to-peer electronic cash.
There are at least three other blockchains available which are well suited to handle the small (Cryptonite), medium (Litecoin), and private (Monero) transactions.
I don't want to give altcoins space to take market share from Bitcoin. You do.