Before anything of that level, you'll see a thousand clones. Some will survive, some won't. Geeks typically find something first. Businessmen find something geeks created and actually find a way to make money on it by getting it to the general public. The odds that anyone ever gets a mere billion dollars of wealth from Bitcoin has to be several million to 1 against it. It's nice to dream, but it's also good to be grounded in reality.
It may be wishful thinking, but I strongly disagree with your opinion..
You are assuming the "experienced businessmen" will be able to easily create a viable alternative to Bitcoin that will suddenly, (or gradually) devalue the current version that the "geeks discovered first".
As if they could just use their capital to muscle on it and hand out a "thanks guys, but we professionals will take it from here" and we would all give up and go home ?
It Bitcoin was a private company that could be "bought out" like Hotmail was by Microsoft (for a mere 400 million, while they just paid 6 billion for Skype), then I might agree with you.
But its not.
Bitcoin is an open-source cooperative, community effort that has taken years to get where it is today, and build the trust it now has in its early adopters. It has taken millions of kilowatt hours of sustained distributed cryptographic hashing power to build the blockchain. Ownership is distributed across thousands (or more) of geeks across the world
No corporation is ever going to be able to build a superior equivalent *overnight* (or even in the medium term) no matter how much money they throw at it. It has taken millions of man hours of coding, debugging, developing, testing and slowly growing support.. No corporation in the world is rich enough to develop that again from scratch. Not even the Microsofts, Apples, Billionaire "Business Leaders", Goverment Authorities, CIA, Evil Dictators, Market Manipulators or any other perceived opponents. And they cannot buy just this already-developed one out from under us.
Microsoft can buy Skype or Hotmail. They *cannot* buy "Linux". How much do you think they would willingly pay to be able to rid the world of the free operating system for the forseeable future ? Mere Billions ? More I would estimate.. It threatens their future monopoly. But they cannot buy it, and they cannot kill it. Its distributed community-owned nature makes it unkillable (by any "power" action of theirs).
Bitcoin is the same.. Even if Corporation "X" offers $25/BTC tomorrow and convinces 40% of people sell theirs and take their profit (in a collapsing fiat currency) and to stop using it, from my understanding, it *will* survive and go on mainting and growing in Value. This is P2P networking, it doesnt need majority support to survive.
Enough geeks, visionaries and revolutionaries will hold onto theirs to make to make the system still viable and continue to grow and offer a valuable service. Even if it does not become "mainstream"
Especially if the "New and Improved "*"coin Ultimate Edition" version offers little benefit over the established system.. and what benefit could a later privatised version of bitcoin offer people that the current one does not have ? Less Fees ? Better Anonymity, more confidence that it wont go under (like companies and governments never do ?), more transparency/open sourceness ? Like any company/government/organisation is going to enhance the users freedoms even more than BTC already does ? Not likely.
The only two lacking areas I see in the current BTC system is ease of use (being worked on) and convenience. (which is where Apple makes it over some of Microsofts potential customers), But neither the familair to the majority windows, nor the "easier-for-non-geeks to use" polish of Apples can offer those who value the open-ness and freedom of Linux *anything* that convinces them to abandon their freedom.
It is like a stark white walled prison cell with an open door, and a nicely decorated prison cell with an open door.. Polish it as you will, but once the users have tasted freedom, no amount of decorating the cell will convince them allow themselves to be voluntarily locked up again.
I think Bitcoin is the same. Once people get used to their first taste of a freedom based community currency with no overseers, then no amount of polish or wallpaper will convince them to return to a controlled by someone else financial environment, no matter what "big name" is backing it.
So as long as Bitcoin does not need to become the *biggest* / default currency in order for it to continue to have value in what it does and enables, then it will never be superceded or replaced by a "business owned" version.
Just my opinion of course, but I would like to hear what you think "GovCoin" or "Facebook Credits" might offer *people who love freedom* and untouchable value (not just the masses) that will convince them to move, *and* why you think Bitcoin will fail if not eventually adopted by the majority in favour of something else (as if there can only be one successful digital currency network).
Big question I know, but its a critical perception point I think.
