http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/2011/04/on-monetary-restandardization.html
So yes Bitcoin is mostly a speculation. It doesn't have the features to do a "coup" as Moldbug says.
And the blackswan is could anyone create an altcoin that could do that "coup"?
Moldbug is at least partially correct, currency domination is coup-complete.
So, let us imagine - what would a real coup look like? Firstly, it would be something created specifically for that goal - designed to destroy the current world order and rebuild it. Secondly, it needs a
decisive strategic advantage: an edge so overwhelming that it can takeover the world, without even requiring largescale adoption from everday folks.
What is the real source of power? This isn't a trick question. It is intelligence itself - that is the ultimate source of all power, all technology, and all value.
Bitcoin will not conquer the world because its Proof of Work distribution strategy consumes precious economic investment and outputs waste heat. It is maximally unintelligent - pure entropy.
Imagine for a moment an alternate world where instead of Bitcoin we had a more optimal cryptocurrency appear at the same time. Imagine - for sake of argument - that this alternate design was perfectly efficient and scalable, such that trillions of transactions per second are possible and double-spending is solved effortlessly without requiring proof-of-work. Naturally this presents another potential problem (at least when viewed from within the narrow perspective of Bitcoin fundamentalism) or rather an opportunity - how should the coins be distributed?
The optimal distribution is simply that which maximizes the long term value of the coin.
Intelligence is the generator of all value, so the optimal distribution algorithm would be one that spends every coin in such a way as to maximally increase the intelligence of the network at every step.
Instead of a huge supercomputer doing pointless hashes, you have a huge supercomputer doing AI research: deep learning, global optimization, etc. And the end outcome is the generation of a new virtual world, economy, and distributed government of
superintelligent agents. Imagine tech similar to SIRI of today evolving towards something like Samantha from the movie
Her - and then beyond - all enabled by a distributed cryptographic economy, and of course, a new cryptocurrency.
The coup is simply - the Singularity.
This project actually exists, and
is just beginning.