RE: Trigger Phrase: Store of Value
Whether or not some other coin will dethrone Bitcoin will depend on its immediate utility and usability and not on possible use cases or technological superiority. Until smart contracts become practical to use for both common people to use, common people to trust, and scale to the demands of common people, I don't see anything coming "sustainably" close to Bitcoin in the next ten years.
Bitcoin has probably the most secure network that relies on little trust on governance and the exterior community. This makes the base protocol layer extremely resistant to change (which can be seen as a good or bad thing). But there are tons of blockchain developers working on scalable solutions to both money transactions and introducing smart contract capabilities onto the Bitcoin network.
Perhaps, Bitcoin doesn't need to be the blockchain that doesn't everything. But rather Bitcoin provides a less variable slow changing layer one foundation for other sidechains, blockchains, and protocols to build from. Being a source of secure randomness is a benefit that you mention that can be applied in lots of ways that are useful.
Other blockchains have risen up due to weaknesses in Bitcoin's protocol. I only wonder which side of development will win out? Those building on top of Bitcoin to fix its weaknesses, or those starting from scratch that solve these issues while compromising in other areas like security, centralization, etc.
Couldn't agree more.
It's not worth sacrificing the trust of Bitcoin unless the application is killer.
I ironically speculate that the days of speculation will be over soon™.
I highly doubt that Bitcoin can keep up with other blockchains due to its
I guess we'll see.
I don't think Bitcoin needs to keep up with other blockchains necessarily. Moreso, I think the more important question is whether or not the Bitcoin stack (with BTC at the bottom) will compete with any other blockchain stack.
I think Ethereum was the first real coin that hinted towards this idea, but it is also dealing with scalability issues that it needs to solve by expanding and building out its stack. But I pretty sure Ethereum's scaling approach involves changing the base protocol layer which may be harder in the long run and risks potential danger in hard forks. I think a newer smart contract platform may surpass Ethereum before it passes (if it passes) Bitcoin.
I think development in protocol stacks is a safer method as it avoids hard forking in general. I mean we've seen the harm that sloppy forks can cause. Luckily we haven't seen a breaking bug. But hey, like you've said, we'll see what happens.
Sharding definitely feels like a change to the base protocol level. Seems like it's sacrificing decentralization. Plasma might be a little better in that regard with the whole side-chain concept... I assume it's basically the Lightning Network of Ethereum.
Like you said though... it's mostly about the demand of the dapps on the chain. No one is exactly clamoring to use any dapp in existence right now.
In January 2017 Bitcoin was worth 22 times more than Ethereum. Today Bitcoin is worth 5 times more, and that gap has been as small as x2. It might only take one more bull run to flip it, and when it flips it's going to flip hard because of all the bandwagon jumpers.
Ripple might even be the coin to flip it... which would be horrifying... lol.