I agree with this remark.

But I don't think I agree with you about competition.

There really is no substitute for working at something and pushing it till you have a practical solution. That seems to be what's going on here. I've been playing around with some "crypto note" stuff lately and I can confidently declare that I think they are garbage. I can't even get my Monero off an exchange because there's nowhere for it to go - no wallet that doesn't require you to be a Unix geek for example.

I lost a load of it getting it onto an exchange because I didn't have a "Payment ID". That stuff is going nowhere. The devs can't even get a GUI wallet together for a Mac after weeks of it being launched. The two coins that actually are "happening" right now in terms of development and dedication are:

[1] - Darkcoin

[2] - Jackpot coin

You may think that that second one is a joke - it isn't. I just included it because it's a dream to use and seems to have a Dev that is determined to come up with a complete product that is rock solid, Those two have those things in common and the cryptonote stuff just doesn't.