... For your rank and file bitcoin user, it won't actually represent any loss of value, it just seems to be a power play of the ultra rich. ...
So if (when?) a hardfork spooks the hell out of a lot of possibly uninformed people... and they all start dumping BTC (and/or BTU) and the prices plummet to ~$100... and your coins are now worth only 10% of what they are today... then that isn't a loss of value?
Sure, I see what you mean.
Upon preliminary examination, I don'the really see major utility gains in BU, just seems like an unstable alt coin to me that is trying to seize the Bitcoin brand.
I mean , every alt coin has some gimmicks to claim to be better than bitcoin, but in the end most of the demand is just from people hoping to get rich quick, and because of their lack of commitment to the core concepts of "altcoinx" they end up dumping it as soon as the opportunity to make a few hundred grand arises, placing a natural limit on the value of any altcoin.
It remains the community of bitcoin users who set the market value, and since the "bitcoin believers" of the first generation still have the biggest holdings, and are unlikely to dump, I can't really see BU destroying the market value.
The whole BU feeling kind of reminds me of a fanatical doomsday cult promising the end of the world on a specific date... and when the date arrives and the world doesn't end, they'll set a new date...
Markets are ultimately what establish price... not like the core developerst are going to let bitcoin die because of scalability issues, they are just not implementing wild and extreme and probably dangerous solutions unilaterally.
If a large number of coins "leave" the bitcoin ecosystem it could actually push the price up as demand on exchanges for BTC remains high and supply decreases.
BU is a flash in the pan imo... but please correct me if I am missing something