Quote from: drawingthesun on August 06, 2013, 05:17:49 PM

Interesting, do you believe Bitcoin cannot hold value in the long term (the next 10 - 100 years) and will be doomed to be a simple means to transfer value?

No, I think it's possible for Bitcoin to continue to hold value, but what actually happens no one knows. My thoughts are not much different from what this community has always thought, for the most part, about Bitcoin which is that its future value is uncertain. Along with that, though, people believed that until something superior to Bitcoin came along it would reign supreme having the only worthwhile value.

What I realized at the time of that post (from the chaos of the Bitcoin Foundation feuding) was another possibility, that there could be multiple coins with worthwhile value at the same time as Bitcoin had value. Working from there I saw several advantages, a big one being the subject of the thread, which was providing the market a more diffuse power structure for cryptocurrency than following only Bitcoin and its new foundation.

I don't believe it's possible for all coins to have similar value, of course, as that means infinite inflation. I do believe, however, the market can value a select few at any given time above all others and these can be the most widely accepted. There still remains the possibility any "super" coin can be supplanted by something far superior, but that's the same as it always was. Until that happens the coin maintains first mover advantage, and reason to retain its value. So that probably means Bitcoin sticks around regardless. What this complex market reasoning means for average people, however, is that they probably stick with something far simpler and more predictable to store the majority of their wealth, like gold. Cryptocurrency is superior to gold for its transactional properties, while gold is superior to cryptocurrency for its wealth storing ability. Both have reasons for people to value them, and I believe will be valued accordingly.