Quote from: justusranvier on November 06, 2014, 12:52:58 PM

Quote from: raid_n on November 06, 2014, 12:46:18 PM

I'm only trying to point out that people should avoid adopting a black or white stance on bitcoin.
It is not an all-or-nothing thing where either bitcoin succeeds or some other alt does but they do not want to accept the possibility of co-existence.

Unfortunately for your desires, reality does not cooperate with that position.

Money is an all-or-nothing proposition because of opportunity cost.

Every Bitcoin one holds is held at the exclusion of every other possible use for that money, especially other currencies.

The act of holding Freicoin instead of Bitcoin has a calculable cost associated with that action.

If the benefits of holding Freicoin do not exceed that cost, then nobody will hold Freicoin.

When we're talking about the opportunity costs associated with currencies, then it's even worse for small currencies.

The opportunity costs associated with not holding the largest currency increase greater-than-linearly based on the relative difference in adoption between the two currencies.

By your logic shouldn't we already have a single global currency because that is where we would logically converge to?

"Every Bitcoin one holds is held at the exclusion of every other possible use for that money, especially other currencies."

Such is the nature of speculation. You believe currency x will be worth more in the future than currency y hence you hold x instead of y.
The thing is there is no guarantee for this and over time outlooks can change.

I personally think it is likely bitcoin will be worth more in the future, hence I have a few.
But do I know this for certain? No. which is why I am not "all in". Do you know for a fact that bitcoin will always be number 1? Can you guarantee that ripple or ether or nxt, for some obscure and unfathomable reason does not outgrow bitcoin and appears to be more valuable for a majority of people?

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What I think is that you are implying the convergence to a monopoly, a single globally accepted digital currency.
I don't think it is in the nature of humanity to agree. There will always be people wanting something else