First to Market is Usually Not Best in Market
There is a very common misconception in the innovation world that being first to market translate to being best in market. However there seems to be a much more decisive factor to being best in market and that is best-fit-implementation.
Similar to Darwins Theory of Evolution the best fit survive. Here are some out of many examples of very successful companies/products that were far from being the first to market:
Microsoft DOS (Disk Operating Systems) IBM had DOS for its then-small System/360 mainframes as far back as 1964 Microsoft did not invent it but provided better implementation (some would argue that J)
Facebook- was not the first social network
Google- was not the first search engine
iPhone was not the first Smartphone (remember Blackberry?) Actually the first Smartphone (that also had touch screen!) was by BellSouth under the name Simon Personal Communicator (1994).
Chrome was not the first Internet Browser (Remember Netscape?)
Point being that rather than focusing only on being first to market we should place more weight on understanding/ figuring out the best implementation that provides the fittest product/value to users need. Proof of Stake is the best implementation imo.
BlackCoin started off as POW for about one week then switched to full POS after all coins were mined.