Bitcoin is going to CRASH - HEREs Why!
It seems to me that psychology will change, people will stop looking at Bitcoin because it lacks a lot of features that other crypto-currencies (altcoins) have. These features are as follows
- Lightning fast confirmations, ie transaction speeds. ie www.bitshares.org www.dash.org
- User Issued Assets - Asset markets where people can make businesses. ie www.bitshares.org
- Smart Contracts - Businesses incorporated into the blockchain. ie www.ethereum.org, www.digix.io/
- Currency Trading or Holding. ie www.bitshares.org www.ripple.com
- Innovative Uses ie www.steemit.com
Bitcoin has none of these features and to get these features it will have to have HUGE movement of players who hold Bitcoin to authorize any of these features. If Bitcoin cant even decide on making the blocksize bigger so their network doesnt just slow down and collapse, how will they
Furthermore, Bitcoin is still looked at as relatively new. Articles are always coming out saying how relatively new the invention of Bitcoin is. What happens when this idea changes and it becomes old.
Just my 2 cents
Your points do make one ponder the future of bitcoin
It can coexist with all the technologies you list. Right now bitcoin is what connects real world to other crypto currencies. If it fails right now, it would be a disaster for the value of all other crypto. Think of bitcoin instead of as the latest and greatest as the gold standard that has been tested more than anything else - basically digital gold that backs the value of other crypto. Bitcoin can work quite well just holding value, and letting other crypto innovate and improve, some will fail, some will succeed, but in the whole crypto-verse is stable. I saw dash dev basically say the same thing - altcoins are free to innovate because bitcoin already exists, and he is doing a fantastic job just like many others you mention. Second is the question of value - it might not be ideal to tether the value of cryptocurrency to a specific asset or service, like fuel for executing smart contracts. Clearly there's nothing wrong with that, but that tether would keep the value down, and then face even lower evaluations from competition as we have seen in eth vs etc. By having some crypto focus entirely on providing the best currency for sending and holding value, it is free to grow based on network effects and ease of use alone which do not face same competition pressure to lower prices as services.