Yeah, it might need one of those eventually for it to "replace bitcoin". A cut down from the recommended 500 confirmations would help to.
Maybe it's not a currency... Hmm..
500 confirmation is 500*15 = 7500 seconds or about 2 hours. The 6 confirmation of bitcoin is about 1 hour. So it is not too long. 15 seconds block time can have many orphans.