One of my goals in my (still ongoing) blockchain development work (which was unfortunately significantly stalled for a few years by illness) is to try to create features and a system that gets users as interested in what they can do with their cryptocurrency tokens that they can’t do with fiat systems (including Paypal et al) as they are interested in the investment appreciation of the fiat exchange value of their tokens.
If we can accomplish that goal, then we will have achieved what I believe is a Schelling point for a (as quoted from my blog):
- Globalized medium-of-exchange with some exclusive, compelling attribute— i.e. intrinsic value
Steem is vying to be that system. Do we value our STEEM as much for what we can do with it as the investment return on STEEM (or the STEEM that can be extracted by blogging)?
Bitcoin probably already has a lock on the intrinsic value of a reserve currency for cryptocurrencies, and the medium-of-exchange to/from fiat. Thus I argue the worst outcome is to fork Bitcoin in August destroying the immutability which insures a 21 million coin limit (and I think all Bitcoin forks will fail because whales will protect the intrinsic value of Bitcoin).
I realize it is unsatisfying to Bitcoin fans if Bitcoin will not scale, but Bitcoin does not need to scale as it can be the on/off ramp to fiat and BTC saving for the altcoin that provides scaling,. Since there will likely be many such competing altcoins, then BTC remains the common denominator for investing in the crypto sector, i.e. the reserve currency of cryptocurrency.
Even if Bitcoin was forked to add some weak ass non-scaling lie, it will still never be that cryptocurrency that provides the breakthrough I am alluding to above. For that, we need competition and experimentation amongst altcoins (not forking the BTC unit into chaotic confusion). Thus we need a stable reserve cryptocurrency and that is Bitcoin. We have it, so no benefit in destroying it whilst trying to make it be something it can not be. Transaction fees will go up on-chain, so eventually those who can not afford have to move to an exchange or an altcoin. That drives a market need for altcoins to compete for the best solution.
Edit: Bitcoin can scale somewhat simply by agreeing on block size increases.
RE: Get Ready for a World Currency