I found a very interesting article here:
https://www.x.com/devzone/articles/how-crypto-currencies-transform-moneyNote that x.com is owned by Paypal.
It gives a number of criteria for crypto-currencies and I think it is interesting to see how Bitcoin measures up (I have put my evaluation (good, poor) next to each criterion:
Open protocol: Very Good
Anonymous: Good
Extremely counterfeit-resistant: Very Good
Protection from theft: Poor -- non-techy users are vulnerable to hacking and no recourse available.
Multipoint authenticity: (The authenticity of any amount in circulation must be verifiable through at least two independent mechanisms.) Very Good
Efficient: (The operation of a digital currency should be highly efficient without requiring a great deal of processing overhead.) Fair -- the bitcoin client uses fair amount of processing power/disk space; online wallets may not be secure (I don't think mining is relevant to end users).
Resilient: (Ideally, a digital currency network should be resilient in the face of multiple system failures.) Fair -- the weak point are Bitcoin Exchanges
I'd say the biggest drawback is lack of protection from theft.
I'd be interested to hear other peoples' views and also if there are other crypto-currencies that really overcome the weak points of bitcoin.
