Why is Bitcoin worth anything?
- It's not a good currency. Its price is unstable, and it has large transaction fees, making it inappropriate for everyday purchases and use as a currency.
- Its technology is outdated. There have been various opportunities to upgrade the technology behind Bitcoin in order to reduce transaction fees and speed up the network. More than any other cryptocurrency, Bitcoin's main stakeholders have opposed its development, leading to various (mostly unsuccessful) forks and a slow development process.
The lightning network will improve Bitcoin if it ever gets implemented on a wide scale, but that progress, like all Bitcoin development, is moving along slowly.
In addition to slow transaction speeds and high costs, Bitcoin suffers from a lack of utility. Whereas the second largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum, has hundreds of applications built on its blockchain, Bitcoin has... Not much. It's a currency. It can be earned, it can be spent. More than anything, it's a speculative investment vehicle, and a bridge currency to buy into with fiat before buying most other currencies. It has a few niche applications, but overall, Bitcoin just isn't good at doing anything of value other than being a currency.
With better technologies emerging, I don't see Bitcoin lasting long-term... Even if rusty old Wall Street execs don't know the first thing about cryptocurrencies.
No, something will replace it, but it does have name recognition.