Long ago, in the before time, their was bitcoin.
Then there came lots of coins; litecoin, monero, STEEM and all the ERC-20 tokens.
It was the hay-day of making coins better, making new coins that were faster, bigger, better...
And now, here we are on HIVE wondering, which coins will survive the purge?
There are bitcoin maximalists, and now, instead of just being heckled, many people are seeing that bitcoin may be the only thing that survives into the future.
What will happen?
This isn't the wild west anymore, this is the beginning of adoption.
It's Just Code...
Bitcoin is the old dog, and back then, it was heckled for being old and slow.
... but, it is just code.
Block sizes can be changed, as soon as most miners choose to adopt such.
The lightning network can take all the tiny transactions off chain.
Any superior algorithm found can be adopted, it's just code.
We are no longer in the paradigm of "may the best man win".
There can be more than one winner... but it is quite obvious that there will be many losers.
And the old coin can adopt everything from the latest coin.
We are not stuck with the past code
The coming purge.
The SEC is suing everyone they can!
Well, they should have sued the obvious ponzi schemes and the obvious rug pulls... but they ignored those.
Now they are trying to declare many coins as securities.
So that they can be regulated...
Fortunately, the SEC will be found that they don't have authority, they don't have jurisdiction, they don't have funding, they have no power.
The SEC will lose its fight against XRP. And this will destroy the SEC. As in, no credibility and people will not want the inept SEC to exist anymore. BUT! there will be lots of people who shout for regulations... because they are silly and always do. (the govern-cement can fix it!)
However, the real damage will be people abandoning the projects. Wanting to distance themselves from the lawsuits. The price could bounce back, but programmers are often just gone, gone, gone.
What will come, and maybe the SEC is only part of it, but there will be a purge. The shitty, shit coins will die, and good coins will live... just kidding... Doge, a joke coin, may make it to far into the future. LTC may die to an SEC lawsuit.
Anyway, the future has less coins. And it will really come down to "does the token have a useful purpose?" If people decide that bitcoin is money, will any other coin matter?
Then, there is always atomic swaps, where a coin can instantly be swapped for any other.
And if so... everything may be priced in bitcoin, and that has no bearing on what is actually sent or received.
Crossing the physical barrier
It will be one of the most fundamental things that brings complete adoption. Physical bitcoin.
So, lets imagine. A coin (physical, round metal object) could be imprinted with a code.
And that code was a wrapped bitcoin, on a certain lightning network.
This coin was tied to a certain amount of satoshis, and you had to go turn in the coin to an actual person from that lightning network to get them to unwrap it and send it to you. (or maybe just swap the token for some satoshis)
This has problems, but it is good enough to use as example.
My favorite idea is a piece of LCD glass that has a tiny compy embedded in it. And you hold it in your hand (charging its little capacitor) it will display how much bitcoin is in it. This things updates itself on the network, with some interlocks, and so, basically, is a tiny, portable hardware wallet that can be exchanged with people.
It will happen in the future. The need is too great.
Or maybe we will just use gold and silver coins.
Your bitcoin is evolving into Super-Bitcoin
It looks like we are at, or are close to, actual adoption. As such, we will see bitcoin being used everywhere and its price going to levels we have only imagined.
Maybe it will be 1 satoshi for 1 lambo
(stupid, worthless, car that needs gasoline and a smooth road... You have to synthesize gasoline, and the roads need a real offroad truck to navigate) 😝
My guess is that when bitcoin crosses $100k you will start to see many people open up their wallets and spending bitcoin on all kinds of things. This, paradoxically will make bitcoin even more valuable.
And with more value, there will be more developers, and then more ways to use bitcoin, and, and...
At this point, we will all know which coins are actually going to make it into the future.
It may just be bitcoin
Or it may be lots of coins in a networked mesh of coins.
From this view, it is easy to be a bitcoin maximalist.
However, Clif High's old data showed LTC at 1:5 with BTC.
It is going to be an interesting ride.