The road of innovation is paved with the corpses of outmoded technologies. Throughout history there are countless examples of a technology presumed to be the “next big thing” starting to gain traction, only to find itself outmoded in the light of a technology that can solve a problem better. Will this happen to Bitcoin? I don’t know. Unfortunately I don’t have a crystal ball which can tell me that. However, I think it’s an interesting thing to speculate about. Bitcoin is described by enthusiasts as potentially being bigger than the Internet itself (a claim I can’t seem to understand, considering that Bitcoin is an Internet-powered technology), but what if the opposite happened, and Bitcoin wound up being as popular as Betamax cassettes or Napster in the grand scheme of things?

http://tonyarcieri.com/the-death-of-bitcoin