I doubt that Lightning is going to save it. Eventually, the Bitcoin block chain bottleneck will show itself again when transactions really start to scale. I also heard they're trying to do the same thing to Ethereum.
The underlying ledger system will always limit throughput. It's kind of like adding a turbo to a one liter engine. Yes, you get more power, bit you still have engine 1.0 doing the work. They need to build it from the ground up to do it right.
EOS, Bitshares and Ripple, to name a few, are made to scale. Bitcoin is the first mover to be sure, but it won't be able to scale by design. Eventually, it will succumb to better technologies.
It still doesn't mean that it won't remain a store of value even when it definitely loses it lure as a means of micro payments due to scaling issues.
Even as a store of value, I'm not really sure Bitcoin can hold on to better than 40% market share or its lead in price, indefinitely. There are now more than 1500 cryptocurrencies and the odds are pretty good one of them will overtake BTC.
I note that of all the currencies in the top 10, it seems like Ethereum held onto its value the best relative to the height of the rally (or bubble) in December. It would seem then, based on that, that ETH is, for the moment a better store of value.
I'm also very concerned about how every exchange has a BTC pair for all of their altcoins, but not all altcoins have another pair. BTC is there as a trading pair for every single altcoin on every exchange. I think this condition alone lends tremendous price support to BTC that is unearned in my opinion.
Once markets develop the processing power and the willingness to add another two, three or four trading pairs to every other altcoin, BTC will see its fortunes diminish. Perhaps then, we can finally put to rest the problem of having all other coins move with BTC in price.
I understand your point. But losing it's title still doesn't mean that it'll become a dead project