I'm actually convinced that Ethereum has something unique to offer specifically to developers. Ethereum will be a common ground for a lot of high value code and data between organizations, people, etc. A lot is possible in a few lines of solidity, I've seen devs create working decentralized exchanges in a few weeks. As you can see, the use of Ether here is just to ensure that the code a user wants to execute on the EVM gets executed. Users need not have to use it as a currency.
Ether's primary purpose is to secure the Ethereum network, not to be used as a "currency" like Bitcoin. If someone gave me an ether every time the Ethereum devs keep emphasizing this, I'd be very rich by now. If Bitcoin did a great job at transferring value in the network without being slow and full all the time, all the ancaps would have stuck to Bitcoin and would have left us in peace.
The Bitcoin challenger is not Ethereum itself, it will be services like Maker that are currently being built on top of Ethereum. Ether purpose is to secure Ethereum so that services like Maker don't have to worry about the security and scalability of the underlying blockchain and can focus on the EVM abstraction and above.
Only in the short term, It is well within the realm of possibility for a purpose built token without counterparty risk like Ether to emerge on the Ethereum network.
I'm actually convinced that Ethereum has something unique to offer specifically to developers. Ethereum will be a common ground for a lot of high value code and data between organizations, people, etc. A lot is possible in a few lines of solidity, I've seen devs create working decentralized exchanges in a few weeks. As you can see, the use of Ether here is just to ensure that the code a user wants to execute on the EVM gets executed. Users need not have to use it as a currency.
Ether's primary purpose is to secure the Ethereum network, not to be used as a "currency" like Bitcoin. If someone gave me an ether every time the Ethereum devs keep emphasizing this, I'd be very rich by now. If Bitcoin did a great job at transferring value in the network without being slow and full all the time, all the ancaps would have stuck to Bitcoin and would have left us in peace.
The Bitcoin challenger is not Ethereum itself, it will be services like Maker that are currently being built on top of Ethereum. Ether purpose is to secure Ethereum so that services like Maker don't have to worry about the security and scalability of the underlying blockchain and can focus on the EVM abstraction and above.