Quote from: Shneebly on December 09, 2013, 05:50:42 AM

Quote from: JorgeStolfi on December 09, 2013, 02:55:50 AM

Bitcoin cannot claim eternal divine perfection, so inevitably there will arise a "NuCoin" that has the same nice properties but is technically better in some respect -- and will therefore replace Bitcoin as the preferred medium of payment for internet commerce.

What will happen to the Bitcoin then? Owners of course would like to swap them for equal worth of NuCoins. But who will agree to the swap?

I'm sure there are dozens of forums superior to Craigslist from a technical perspective. Yet Craigslist is the website with the 11th greatest traffic in the US, so it remains on top. Craigslist is a stupidly simple website... yet it has lots of traffic, and that perpetuates it's popularity. Furthermore, Craigslist's users are not financially bound to support it-- anyone who owns a significant amount of Bitcoin is.

Of course Bitcoin cannot claim "divine perfection," but it does have a first to market advantage. And given the type of painful transition a major switch would be, there would have to be a far superior replacement currency.

I'm curious (no sarcasm intended):

What new, superior quality will this new money have?

Note: I believe the "swap" you speak of would dictate a centralized authority (automatically making the new currency inferior), unless it was built off the existing Bitcoin blockchain.

Great post Peter R.

Uhh... Litecoins/Feathercoins/Namecoins/Peercoins actually already outclass Bitcoin in every single category. Less energy used to verify transactions(currently Bitcoin takes 30 USD to 40 USD to verify, insane and stupid as hell)/faster transaction verifications/less fees/less miners required to do the work/larger quantities/ETC.

next 12 to 18 months ppl will be saying BTC ROFL.