If CT is ever implemented for Bitcoin itself (and segwit seems to make that more likely, even if only marginally), it will not be a higher order tier, it will be regular, ordinary main-chain Bitcoin transactions in which the amounts payable to each output are obscured (mathematically verifiable, but not visible in plaintext). You will no longer be able to look up addresses on a block explorer and see balances.

If implemented on a side-chain, I would consider that "higher tier" although I guess perspectives differ somewhat.