Oh there is lots a new currency could bring, can't believe your so blind that you can't see the gaping flaws in the bitcoin system...here let me list a few off the top of my head (there are many more):
- Decentralised exchange built into the actual program. The exchange fee could be reduced significantly and paid back directly to the miners.
- Easier interface for non-geeks. Average people struggle just to setup a paypal account, hell even making a skype account is hard for a lot...paypal requires all this bank confirmation and direct debits to prove your identity. there needs to be a simple type in credit/debit card details to buy instantly system, that can be built right into the system itself automatically adjusting to the exchange rate.
- Even buying/selling can be right inside the system too, much like comparing something like Napster/Kazaa/Limewire/iTunes to torrents, with those programs you could search for what you want in the program itself.
- Instead of mining difficulty going up, there could be an increasing decay that motivates you to spend the currency instead of hoard it for profit, and actually use the currency for its intention instead of being this stupid speculative machine that bitcoin has become.
Tip: don't start your comments with an insult. I'll address your points:
1) A decentralized exchange is a great idea, but doesn't need to be built into the actual client. That would in fact complicate and weaken the core of bitcoin. Exchanges and other services are properly built around the core of Bitcoin, not as part of the core because their existence isn't necessary for Bitcoin operations at the most basic level. To use an exaggerated example, it would be silly to build in a fancy graphical charting software into the core client, even though such a thing would be useful. Keep the client small, clean, and pure. The rest can be built beyond it.
2) An easier interface would be great, and of course it's probably being planned as we speak. But the current interface is not a flaw with Bitcoin as a protocol per se, it's just an aesthetic issue (and the client is still in beta, remember).
3) Buying/selling functionality inside the client? Again, see point 1. This of course doesn't preclude an alternative
client from being release which offers this benefit - but that's not a competitor to bitcoin as a protocol.
4) Regarding your "motivation to spend currency," that is a philosophical/economic difference that you and myself have. I believe it is economically foolish and misguided to "encourage" spending for spending's sake because it interferes with pricing signals. If a new bitcoin competitor came along that had a mechanism to encourage spending (like "decay!!!"), I'd stay the hell away from it but you're welcome to abandon Bitcoin for that if you wish. You share your view with Obama, Keynes, Geithner, and Krugman. I share my view with Rothbard, Mises, and Hayak.
Only your last point is relevant to the Bitcoin protocol itself, and that's a philosophical difference. If you have other, better, reasons why a competitor would destroy Bitcoin, please present them.
