It seems likely that BTC will continue its upward march... there's a finite supply coming face to face with increasing public awareness and interest... we're only at the very tip of anything that even vaguely resembles mass adoption. That's the upside.
The question mark for me is the technology... is Bitcoin going to start looking "old fashioned and slow" in comparison to some of the alt coins... even some of the alt coins that may not even have been invented yet? For example, my wife and I have a small art gallery, and we'd love to "help the cause" by accepting BTC as a form of payment... yet the functional implementation of that has issues... confirmation times... vs. taking the risk of these so-called "zero confirm" transactions now being touted.
Zero confirmation and/or zero fees and maximum scaling chains still have to proof themselves for robustness and safety. Until then, Bitcoin can retain its supreme position.
I agree that confirmations need and speed need to improve. More adoption will allow for this in addition to the alternates with specific niches.
Regarding art, i posted a thread about how blockchain could impact the industry.
https://steemit.com/blockchain/@gil.paez/why-blockchain-is-the-future-for-investing-in-fine-art
There are many very positive quotes. I think all of them are legitimate. However the transaction speed and fees have increased in a inconvenient fashion which is a negative factor indeed don' you agree? Many people see it maybe too rosy at the moment I believe. I hope I am not right but there could be a major crisis in BTC in front of us. Take also the centralisation of mining which is endangering somehow the independence of the BTC-blockchain on top there might come an attempt of attack from SEC and of FED which at least temporarily impact the demand for BTC for phychological reasons at least from a US point of view. Imagine some of the exchanges get shut down by governments or get tightly regulated on AML and KYC. I just wanted to post some of the concerns I see but believe me I am heavily in crypto for my circumstances and do not hope any of these things will happen. But still I try to get only my foot into the story and not the whole leg. As alternatives I suggest to hold some gold and silver that seems to be old fashioned but its nice to look at - at least. ;-) sorry for this nex time I join the enthusiastic fraction...