Can Bitcoin Win the Digital Payments 'Gauge War'?

Will bitcoin ever have a more meaningful impact on society than this?

Bitcoin has proved to be a remarkably robust means of making certain kinds of payments.

Of course, bitcoin has also spawned a variety of other cryptocurrencies, which range from being reasonable propositions to completely unappealing.

In speculating on whether bitcoin and its imitators can progress beyond these modest beginnings, one important historical analogy is useful: the development of railways in the UK. Some initial railways were highly profitable and others were miracles of engineering but in various senses less successful.

Take all of this back to bitcoin and assume that only the narrow version survives - solely a payments system.

This could still be a major potential competitive threat to all forms of financial gatekeeper, but only insofar as bitcoin can outcompete its rivals among other means of digital payments.

Bitcoin's opportunity lies in how well it too can enable more seamless, low-cost digital transactions for people.

Bitcoin may have helped spark the railroad age but there is no guarantee it will win.

Bitcoin could still win the competition to provide better, cheaper, more reliable payments.

Recent steps promised by Bakkt, for example, can be regarded as encouraging if they bring bitcoin closer to being used in mainstream commerce.