What made Bitcoin so successful? How couldn't altcoins like defeat it at the early stages? Is it because of the overwhelming support of the community that made bitcoin what it is today?
Considering its the first digital currency or cryptocurrency exist wayback before into those years. It might not get the attention directly from most people but there are some who do believe on its potential and Satoshi did really make a great innovation when it comes into payment system which we do see on its white paper on whats the purpose of the creation of bitcoin and now we are witnessing its success.
I'll correct some points. Bitcoin is
not the first digital currency but it is the first
decentralized digital currency or cryptocurrency.
In response to the OP, Bitcoin today is comprised of Bitcoin's failures in the past. Bitcoin,in its early years, has undergo some bugs and security issues but as the time goes by it is layered by multiple fold of securoty and a lot of developers who worked hard makimg it impregnable and impossible to hack since computational prowess we have today can't break it and it can be broken with the supercomputers developed in the future
but at that time the security has increased multiple folds as what it was today making it impregnable due to constant development.