Bitcoin Forum

as people have pointed out, now that the world has been exposed to the idea of decentralized cryptocurrency, we will never willingly go back to a pure government-controlled fiat monetary system.

so if bitcoin, perhaps for some unforeseen technical reason, fails and fade away...

what will come up and take its place?

I guess that depends on what factor makes the Bitcoin fail. Most likely the Bitcoin copies (Litecoin, Namecoin etc.) will also fail if Bitcoin does IMO.

That's quite an interesting question.  I think like the posted above says, it will all depend on the reason that bitcoin falls.  If it falls for some technical flaw in design, we'll see another crypto currency take it's place rather quickly (will be a war to take first place between the alt coins).  If it falls due to extreme government attacks, who knows.  All depends on reason.

are there any technical reasons where people think it MAY fail?

Well yea.  It has some vulnerabilities like a 51% attack.  It can also fail if future transaction fees are not enough to cover mining costs (once there are no more coins to be mined).  A google search will give you more information, these are the top two that pop up in my head currently.

In most circumstances you would expect the early attempts to fail and a better alternative to come along later. I don't think that can happen with bitcoin. At least not in the short term. If bitcoin crashes I don' think you will see another large digital currency for years.