I dislike the first to market argument. The economy of Bitcoin is but a blip on the economic radar. It's akin to having a mom-and-pop store be first on the block. That's fine and dandy until a Walmart or Walgreens is constructed next door. Facebook wasn't the first social media website on the market. iTunes wasn't the first seller of online music. Sites like MySpace (or its earlier incarnations) and Napster were innovative and game changing, but in the end they were rendered obsolete. It's not only arrogant but also foolish to believe that the genesis of an idea will equate to long-term success. Ideas are modified (stolen) all the time. I'm sure we can all think of many examples of this, if not see above.
I didn't say it can't be obsoleted by something better. It's just that the OP argument sounded like "because stuff is open and therefor there will be lots of Bitcoins". Facebook was better than MySpace in certain way. Maybe it just looked better or something, but people don't simply switch to something new and if there is a new Bitcoin it doesn't mean that Bitcoins will have suddenly zero value.
Call it what you want, a wide moat, high barriers to entry, whatever, these are what you need to give yourself a competitive chance. I think the OP in a roundabout way is trying to point out that Bitcoin may not possess enough of these barriers.
A. This barriers come to existence. I agree, they might be not high enough for an alternative but
B. Why are alternatives such a huge problem? I mean as long as there aren't tons of them it really isn't that much of a problem. See Namecoin.
Do I own Bitcoin? Yes. Have I sold goods for Bitcoin? Yes. It's a rather fantastic and ingenious concept. That doesn't mean I can't be objective about Bitcoin
I think that possessing and utilizing Bitcoins means that one has to be objective about them. Else there could be a big loss.
And there are also a lot of "Bitcoin is doomed" guys. Most of them just want cheap Bitcoins, else they wouldn't waste their time writing nonsense. One really shouldn't overestimate problems or their potential influence on Bitcoin. While I agree there are lots of hurdles and Bitcoin could be better in many places it's currently(!) does well. Of course there could always be more Bitcoin related projects, services, businesses, but these are things we can work on and it really isn't that bad right now. The stable price is a good things for businesses and I'm sure I am not the only potential customer. Even if Bitcoins will be transferred into Dollars or Euros eventually creating a Bitcoin accepting businesses most likely result in a more customer and the risk isn't that high.
