Additional protocol layers will be built on top of bitcoin which will provide stable currencies pegged to dollars, gold, oil, or anything else your heart desires. Think about how HTTP is built on top of TCP/IP. That is how we will build new, stable currencies on top of bitcoin.
Further more it would be doubly impossible to do this if BTC is still floating against the dollar because you would creating a triangle, lets assume you want to maintain a BTC/Gold peg you now have 3 exchange rates, BTC/Dollar, Gold/Dollar which float and BTC/Gold which is pegged. This immediately creates potential for an arbitrage if either of the floating rates shifts without a commensurate change in the other. Take the present massive rise in BTC/Dollar, Gold/Dollar hasn't shifted at all and if your BTC/Gold peg had been in balance before it is now totally out of which and a person can profit hugely by converting BTC->Dollar->Gold->BTC and they will have multiplied their wealth hugely while draining the wealth of the peg maintaining entity. This is why the original gold standard failed.
This is finally the conversation I wanted to see here at bitcointalk.
Help me figure this out: So what if you peg BTC to an index? Call it BTC/Sht, that is, pegged to the price of all the sh*t you can buy with it.
You take the price of gold, the price of gold, food, gasoline, potatoes, dollars, yen, everything.. and take into account fluctuations, so that if one item starts varying, it has less influence on the index, to avoid manipulation.
Then you make the process of entering data and participating in the calculation of this index a new way to mine (that way ASICs miners aren't the only ones who get to participate in the process of generation of new bitcoins).
This way
a) You make a stable foundation that people can use to trade and save in
b) You provide a way for more people to participate in the generation of new coins, possibly letting new players in. In third world countries with strong currency control, its just as hard to get your hands on bitcoins as it is to get your hands on any other currency, because who wants your fiat, right?
c) You protect bitcoin and users from manipulation