Great article with much food for thought, thanks for posting. Bitcoin will always be number one in what it is, just by virtue of being the first with its utility.

That is also shown in network theory; Metcalfe’s theorem, which translates to the value of the token being equivalent to the square of the number of users in the network, multiplied by a utility constant. Another offering coming along later with the same utility will never supplant the first, as the first will always have a head start on the number of users.

But, if the utility is different, higher in some way, like it is with Ethereum and its ecosystem of smart contracts, then anything is possible.

It is easy to see the value of Bitcoin to hoarders, but I would dearly love to see us get away from the ideas of a scarcity economy altogether, as I believe we must, towards an economy that reflects the real value we each add to the planet, fuelled by solar energy.

We don’t add much value to the planet using oil, or any other scarce resource, in fact it is obviously negative. But if we were fuelled by sunlight, where the currency created directly relates to the energy converted, then our value added would definitely be quantifiable, thus could be fairly rewarded in a new non-zero sum economy.

If everyone had equal access to wealth, paid by a non profit system, fuelled by free, limitless sunlight in this way, there would be no reason to compete with our fellow humans. We would soon see how much more powerful and robust we could be as a species, working on that basis, compared with the broken greed driven system we have now.

In fact, the count of the amount of tokens generated and distributed in that new system at any time would be a measurement of the value added to the planet by humanity.

For me, Bitcoin has infinite value as the first demonstration of what can be achieved with cryptocurrencies, in the longer term.