Mere months ago, Bitcoin's market cap occupied 60% of the market...

Bitcoin has long been the brand of cryptocurrency, the Walkman of portable cassette players (I'm getting old...), the Kleenex of tissue paper, you get the picture (Kodak? Or Polaroid?).

When I was a kid, the original Nintendo was the console of choice. In fact, the older generation called all video game systems "Nintendos", even if you were stuck with the sub-standard but cheaper alternatives (TurboGraphx, anyone?).

Bitcoin is the name that people who know nothing about cryptocurrency, call all cryptocurrency. And for good reason. Like the Walkman and Nintendo, the name has long dominated the scene to the extent that it is the household name associated with all currencies on the market. All currencies are compared to it. Values are relative to it. You can check the value of your selected crypto in your local currency, and in satoshis.

But things have been changing. A few currencies have attempted a sort of economic coup. First, Bitcoin Cash attempted to usurp the throne. It failed, but still offers faster and cheaper transactions (for now, anyway). Ripple came along and briefly stood ahead of Bitcoin in market cap, but being a banker's coin, it never really captured the hearts of true cryptocurrency believers. It still has its place in the market, but it's not the brand of cryptocurrency. Most recently, Ethereum has had a crack at the throne with the weakening value of Bitcoin and its broad base of tokens built on its foundation.

But an interesting thing has been happening over the last few days of tumult. Bitcoin has been creeping up in market dominance. A few days ago, it was down around 32% of the market cap. It has slowly been climbing, and is now approaching 40% of the market.

Not-so-bold prediction: Bitcoin will return to dominance. For a few reasons. Firstly, the Lightning network will resolve Bitcoin's transaction speed and cost problems. It is ramping up, getting closer to widespread implementation, and will dramatically improve Bitcoin's capacity to transfer value - not just to be a store of value (so Bitcoin Cash doesn't really serve as much of a purpose as a counter to Bitcoin at that point - sorry BCH, no offense) .

Secondly, side-chain solutions like Rootstock will offer smart contracts on Bitcoin. This may bring some projects over from Ethereum and add another reason to stick with Bitcoin as a blockchain solution for various problems.

Thirdly: many, many forks are coming to Bitcoin (more than 50 in 2018!). Traders may stock up on Bitcoin just to get all the variations of Bitcoin spawn added to their portfolio. Sure, many of these will be horrible failures, but a few will surely offer good use-cases and value.

Bitcoin will gradually climb back to a position of dominance over the coming months. Don't neglect your position in Bitcoin for the sake of so-called "cheap" coins. Bitcoin will hold much of the value of the market as a whole and will remain the brand name of cryptocurrency.

image source:
https://steemkr.com/steemit/@merosalah/10-reasons-why-central-banks-will-miss-the-cryptocurrency-renaissance

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