I don't think any of the forks of bitcoin have a promising future, because the development of the Lightning Network will render them unnecessary. I also think they sow market confusion and give the impression that bitcoin is actually inflationary. It's probable, though, that they will rise in value during the next bull run.
Exactly. I also believe that the Lightning Network will render many Bitcoin forks completely useless. The main reason this Bitcoin fork craze started, was to create a scalable version of Bitcoin with an increased blocksize (apart from greed). Bitcoin Cash was the one crypto that started it all, but has taken a quite risky path that's been largely untested. On the other hand, Bitcoin's Lightning Network is being tested each day to become a secure, and decentralized second-layer protocol for instant and inexpensive micropayments.
If successful, then there would be no use for an "improved version" of Bitcoin. This means that Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin Cash, BitcoinZ, and many other BTC forks would have no reason to exist. With many altcoins available in the market today, competing against each other, it's becoming more difficult for Bitcoin forks to prove their existence.
Nonetheless, Bitcoin Gold could be just another Bitcoin fork with no purpose in real life. Unless people become deeply interested in it, I don't see it going anywhere. Just my thoughts
