Is that possible? The existing infrastructure is owned by governments and banks and corporations. Even if we could copy the infrastructure and use it for a new currency, it would have to be centralized because that's how it's designed.
Or if we wanted to make a new currency and plug it in to the existing system, it would have to use the existing units. To send money using a checking account number or credit card number would require converting into the local fiat currency.
Before Bitcoin existed, I was invited to a small conference for a currency called "Trade Dollars" (also known as "barter bucks") from a company called TradeBank. In essence, it worked the same as regular debit card money, except it was only accepted at a few places and there was a 10% fee. Because they copied the existing model of infrastructure, but on a much smaller scale, they got all the drawbacks of our financial system with none of the benefits.
The only advantage was that other local users would be forced to buy from you, since they had nowhere else to spend Trade Dollars; that advantage was cancelled out by the fact that you yourself had nowhere to spend the Trade Dollars you accepted. I went to the conference because one of my customers wanted to sign me up, and I indulged him to keep a good relationship with his account. But I didn't go so far as to join, since it was such a stupid idea that it was almost a scam.
Their entire appeal was based on the idea that "when you barter, you're getting everything for half price". It was aimed at small businesses, and the angle was "you only pay wholesale prices for your inventory, but you're trading it for full retail price". You see, if you sell a $100 item at your store, but you only pay $50 for it wholesale, you can barter it for a $100 item from someone else's store. That's what they call 50% off. I explained to my customer that U.S. dollars work the exact same way, without the 10% fee. He said, "But with Trade Dollars I'm getting 50% off."
I actually drew him a chart:
You pay $50-->trade it for 100 Trade Dollars-->spend 90 Trade Dollars.
Next column:
You pay $50-->sell it for $100-->spend $100.
He still wasn't convinced, because they had sold him the idea that he was getting everything half price with "the barter system".
So it was a fiat altcoin - just like fiat, with a few arbitrary adjustments, and without the advantage of widespread acceptance. There is no reason to use Trade Dollars when you could use Dollars instead. Bagholders tried to hype it and get new users, but they had no selling points to offer.
But Bitcoin uses a different system. It does not bring with it all the drawbacks of our financial system. So there are reasons to use Bitcoin instead of Dollars.
And that is why crypto altcoins are different from fiat altcoins like Trade Dollars. If an altcoin is based on Bitcoin, it has all the features of Bitcoin plus or minus the arbitrary adjustments unique to the altcoin. It's just like Bitcoin, but without the advantage of widespread acceptance. If you add widespread acceptance, then it might be just as good as Bitcoin, and better than fiat for some purposes. In London, you can pay your rent with RE/MAX realtors using Litecoin or Dogecoin. For that purpose, Litecoin and Dogecoin work just as well as Bitcoin.
Paid is paid, whether you use Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, Paypal, wire transfer, money order, or traveler's cheque. People choose to use different methods even though they all do the same thing. If a retailer has the ability to accept one type of credit card, it's a small matter to accept another new card which uses the same system. If a retailer accepts personal checks, the check can come from any bank out of thousands of banks.
And now we have Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, NXT, and any other altcoin you want to use. I'm personally involved with Fractalcoin, Keycoin, Lyrabar, and Unitus, and people have asked me why I care about "shitcoins". What's good about them, they ask. The easy answer is "everything that's good about Bitcoin". They all do the same thing, and there's plenty of room for all of them just like Visa, Mastercard, and American Express. Once a retailer adds the ability to accept Bitcoin, it's a small matter to accept any other cryptocoin.
Now, if you think DPoS is the future, then there's plenty of room for that too. You'll probably be able to spend it the same places you can spend Bitcoin. A debit card and a credit card do diffferent things - one uses money you have, the other puts you into debt. But they function exactly the same for the purpose of buying something. The cashier doesn't care if you have the money or if you're going into debt, as long as the receipt is paid. It will be the same with Bitcoin-type transactions. When you buy groceries, it won't matter that Bitcoin "doesn't do anything" or "wastes electricity", while your other payment method can be used for smart contracts or uses DPoS. They're all cryptocurrencies, and they're all together within a new category of money.
But if you have a new currency that is based on the old fiat infrastructure, then why would you use it instead of fiat?