If Bitcoin got cracked, hacked, compromised or corrupted one day which meant its end, would that automatically follow for Quark as its algorithm is also SHA256?
Quark has one of the most unique hashing algos in the crpyto space. Bitcoin uses a single SHA2 hash, Quark uses 9 rounds of hashing from 6 hashing functions (blake, bmw, grøstl, JH, keccak, skein). 3 rounds apply a random hashing function.
NIST held a public competition to develop a new hash function called SHA3.
Keccak is currently chosen as the next SHA3 hash, the other Quark algos were all finalists in the NIST competition for the next SHA3 algo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NIST_hash_function_competitionIm no cryptogrpaher but would assume if the NSA's SHA2 is somehow compromised, Quark would likely skyrocket as people would move into a more secure coin