I think it only now has a shot as digital gold. That might just happen, but I think it's unlikely. I expect that Ethereum will surpass Bitcoin's marketcap eventually, and that will diminish its potential.
Me too. Sideways, ETH is currently being sold (at least officially) via BTC. So a collapse of the BTC system, where we're heading since a longer period of time, would significantly impact Ethereum's use, development and deployment - and that isn't that good. Maybe we should create a new cryptocurrency - DAO makes it easy [[UPDATE: to lose your money]] ... Oh, DAO is ETH based, ETH is BTC based, it follows: all DAO-related currencies are BTC dependent in the current stage. Ethereum should become independent (if it wants to survive) but not take over the role of Bitcoin. It wasn't intended for it in the first place.
I think this was true for several months, but increasingly less so. I know a few people that just went fiat to ETH, and the big exchanges support it. As both ETH and BTC rose over the last several days, I think it's evidence that they are less inversely correlated than before.Sideways, ETH is currently being sold (at least officially) via BTC