In talking about potential competition coming in, stealing ideas or code or coming out with similar products or even other competitors who may or may not have products with faster block times (like clearinghouse) I have only this to say:
A lot of my professional experience has been in business and marketing (business to business and corporate), in that world you come to learn some important facts very fast, namely it doesn't matter if your competitors have slightly better products or even slightly better deals. It comes down at the end of the day to how like-able you are. Assuming 5 people show up trying to sell a product, and all products are similar (even if 1 or 2 are slightly better or worse), the real determining factor in success will simply be if those who are pitching their product come off as better prepared, more understanding of peripheral technologies and companies within their sector and are people who the buyers of the product will get along with more and can imagine doing future business with rather than which product is "technically" a bit better.
I use that example to bring up something Patrick Byrne said about his choice on choosing Counterparty devs for Medici over the other projects which brought similar products (which may have been potentially slightly better or worse technically). His specific reason was that of all those in the 2.0 space offering cryptographic asset platforms, Counterparty devs had similar philosophy as Patrick, similar drive, and he felt he could get along with them more and thus instantly saw a future of doing business with them.
This level of preparedness in the Bitcoin space as well as their ability to make sound and quick judgement calls that get shit done the right way the "FIRST" time is not something you can find easily even if you were to look at other platforms with similar technology...Also keep in mind that there are plenty of genius people who can spend years innovating, but you can't just look at the crypto-coin space from a computer science perspective, you also have to look at it from a business perspective, WHO will be the first to bring real and usable products to market?
This is why I have full faith that Counterparty will reign supreme in this 2.0 space, they have all the tools not just technically but also mentally and spiritually that will be needed to be the global leader in providing cryptographic asset creation and now smart contracts as well