Thinking about it more I would like to say that I think the true alternatives to bitcoin will involve competition between PoS/PoI/PoW. The "scam-coins" as they have been known up until now don't provide enough alternative to compete with how bitcoin competed with fiat+banks.
And as we have seen many times before with technology, it's not about what's best, it's about what catches on. Think of any given technology and there's what's the best at its job, and there's what the majority of people use. It's rarely the same thing.
Something better than bitcoin will come along, but it's all about infrastructure.
99.9% of alt coins are total scams or just for pure speculation and some adding "hype features" to add to speculation. but the .1% of coins that are truely revolutionary such as nxt and nem (forget about the bad media in relation to nxt - just think of the technology for now) do, seriously threaten bitcoin in a big big way. they are not just simple currencies. they support entire eco systems to built ontop/around them. its quite fascinating to learn about and once you understand the concept and technology - free of bias from those with vested interests in other coins - you realise that these platforms are the next logical step in development.
if you ever hear andreas antonopolous or any other big time speakers, you always hear them saying "currency is a side effect, or its just the first application". the thing is, bitcoin cannot, or will seriously struggle, to incorporate everything other than the currency bit, which is what the 2.0's like nxt and nem are doing currently at brake neck speeds.
"And as we have seen many times before with technology, it's not about what's best, it's about what catches on. Think of any given technology and there's what's the best at its job, and there's what the majority of people use. It's rarely the same thing."
i agree, but that only relates to things like betamax/vhs battle. same thing, only ones a bit better than the other. but the one with most hype won out.
however, thats like saying 1.0 and 2.0 coins are like betamax and vhs, when in reality, its closer to betamax and ipod's with internet connectivity. you can even build social networks on top of these platforms in a totally decentralised way. there actually was one half built months ago but it got zero attention and wasnt developed to a user friendly stage, so it was put off, was more like a proof of concept at the time. but it worked, that was the main thing. it showed that the likes of facebook or twitter could be built on top of the blockchain in a p2p manner.
the infrastructure will come in time. it wont be hard for bitcoin business to integrate what ever coin comes up behind bitcoin. business wont care what currency they are dealing with, as long as they make money from it. so the infrastructure is there, it just needs to integrate what ever threatens bitcoin and they are all fine and dandy.
and im not trying to "pump" them ether. its just important that as many people as possible "see the light" when it comes to these platforms as early as possible (helps distribution if many more people get in cheap). once you fully understand these systems, you will get the same feeling you got when you first had the bitcoin "aha" moment and realised what this p2p technology meant and how disruptive it can be. just take the time to study the systems. learn how nxt really works first. just go to the forum ( nxtforum.org) and just ask questions. forget all the fud you hear around because thats all it is. then move on to nem and learn what innovations they have made over nxt. deciding to do this will be the best two decisions you will make since you decided to buy into bitcoin. then come back to me and thank me
