If another coin shows that a different approach to verify transactions is better, are we (or better, the developers) going to embrace such new approach in order to keep bitcoin at the top ? If such technology for instance helped solving the scalability and the energy problems of bitcoin?
Ah, I see. The block chain is central to the bitcoin protocol, as is the hash function. I think it is highly unlikely that those parts will be touched.
I sometimes see energy problems mentioned and cannot really follow that train of thought. Bitcoin is a service and as such requires infrastructure, just like many others. Take banking as a comparison. You got buildings, vaults, employees, .... All these have maintainance cost, which in total is much higher than the electricity required for Bitcoin.