When we travel from one country to another, for business or pleasure, we should probably convert part of our money into the local currency of the country to which we are going. This is because in most countries the own currency is used for the local economy. However, to export or import any type of value, the currency used is the dollar, since it is the most accepted reserve currency.
With BitCoin happens something very similar. There are many cryptocurrencies in different exchanges but the vast majority (if not all) accept BitCoins, either to import or to export value of the platform.
One could assume that those two currencies (each in its context) are the ones with the greatest value backing, however, this statement can not be further from the truth. In both cases the only value that backs the currency is the acceptance by the people and that is about to change.
In the case of the dollar you could argue that it is the only currency with which you can buy oil. That was true until March 26 of this year when China began selling oil futures contracts competing with the West Texas Intermediate of New York and London Brent, which until then were the only ones when marketing oil future contracts.
In the case of BitCoin, you could claim that it is a decentralized, censorship-resistant, 24x7 functional currency and fast transactions with low commissions. Well, that's not the case anymore. All these characteristics are true, but BitCoin is no longer the only currency with these characteristics and therefore its current valuation does not make sense (~ 10K USD May 2018).
Both currencies are being threatened by their competition and it is very likely that we will see them being displaced by an alternative currency that without warning is going to apear backed up with a real value and not based on speculation.
The Chinese Yuan now is backed by the gold reserves of China, which is much more than what the US can offer at this moment. Similarly, EOS has the same characteristics as BitCoin, adding not only scalability and eliminating fees, but also adding the possibility of creating smart contracts on one of the most promising technology platforms of this year.
I am not saying that it will happen overnight, nor that these two alternative currencies will replace the current leaders. But it is something that can happen sooner rather than later.
