If you are interested in decentralized exchanges, coins pegged to the USD, gold, or other assets, then check our colored coins (the video here is a pretty good summary): http://coloredcoins.org

The major advantage of colored coins is that they exist purely in bitcoin-space--there's no need to buy some foo-coin to create them.  

Colored coins are essentially small amounts of bitcoins that encode IOUs for various assets.  For example, Bitstamp could create BitstampUSD colored coins.  The value of a colored coin is thus the value of the underlying bitcoins + the market value of the IOU.  I could buy BitstampUSD from anyone, send them to Bitstamp, and then have Bitstamp honour the IOU by wiring money to my bank account.  

Colored coins open up exciting opportunities for the bitcoin network.  However, colored coins are not a threat to bitcoins themselves.  The reason they are not a threat is that all colored coins are IOUs; they are only worth something as long as the counterparty can honour them.  In other words, colored coins are not completely trustless.  There is only one asset in bitcoin-space that is not also someone else's liability: bitcoins themselves.  

Just like the bitcoin network has a protocol for transactions this banking network would have a protocol for issuing the debt. You can set the required collateralization to the desired level for each respective network as easily as you change the block reward on a bitcoin fork. Bitshares is already creating a decentralized bank and exchange with 200% reserves. There is a lot more information at bitshares.org and bitsharestalk.org. 


I don't believe that this system is impervious to bank runs even though it does not use the fraudulent fractional reserve system.  If markets are not efficient and there is a run on the bank then ppl will lose money. But this is true of any banking system as we will soon see in the US when interest rates adjusts and banks default again.

I'm saying create a p2p network like bitcoin that has its own crypto asset like bitcoin but is not distributed through mining and maintains a set or more stable money supply. Embedded in this network is a banking system that creates debt instruments (collateralize by the underlying equity of the network) that can be used as currency. There is a reason why we have historically used debt as currency, because it is stable. You invest/save through equity and you spend through debt.

Digital currencies themselves can be Fiat.  Why does Dogecoin have a larger capitalization than an innovative coin like NxT or layered improvements like Mastercoin / Counterparty?  Why does BTC and LTC maintain their position ~ despite hordes of technically better coins?

It seems to me community is king for currencies.  Bitcoin may have an infamous reputation among the mainstream but it frankly hasn't had a serious challenger to date.

Once a crytpo currency uses market forces to stabalize the purchasing power then we will start seeing mass adoption.

You are essentially suggesting that we need monetary inflation and deflation to stave off price inflation and deflation. That is the wrong route. We need neither type of inflation and deflation. We need to go back to sound money, with the backing for that money coming from crypto-assets that have a stable supply.

MySpace is a company, Bitcoin is a protocol

The internet is a protocol, nothing similar to the internet preceded it and nothing similar will replace it. The protocol will simply be updated.

Same will happen with bitcoin, the protocol will be updated where necessary and nothing needs to replace it.

The infrastructure around bitcoin is too large to just be replaced every few years, it took years to build and it's far from complete. No way merchants, banks, exchanges etc. will change to the newest altcoin all the time just for some random functionality that bitcoin doesn't have but the altcoin does or claims to have, it will be far too costly, it's far easier to just update the bitcoin protocol and no infrastructure needs to be changed drastically.

Maidsafe had almost no presence on the net a few months ago, it was some obscure vaporeware project.  Suddenly, out of nowhere, they annouced some coin and received millions in hours until it was partially closed.  

Someone invested 900 BTC ($450K) in one transaction alone.  Based on what?  No photos and stuff copied from freenet?  No escrow?  No marketing?

Successful ipo? Are you kidding?
Don't you see people's complaint?

This is the problem with Nem's distribution scheme.

Never let anyone read transactions history of your real wallet address.
It shows how unsuccesfull you have been the last year.