Could you link to any papers or discussions about this point? The work to establish this seems like it would be really interesting.Thermodynamics shows that a) RNA is the only pre-protein nucleotide that fulfill the thermodynamic bound for replicators, b) a random strand 'gas' population of RNA _will_ crystallize to a replicator within ~ 30 000 years in the phosphate activating environment of alkaline hydrothermal vents.
Seems the links were cut. It's England Lab publications. Main one Statistical physics of self-replication
Jeremy L. England
Citation: J. Chem. Phys. 139, 121923 (2013); doi: 10.1063/1.4818538 but also his seminar.
Found mail in old archive. Maybe your interest remains. a)
also b) Thermodynamic Basis for the Emergence of Genomes during Prebiotic Evolution
Hyung-June Woo, Ravi Vijaya Satya, Jaques Reifman mail
Published: May 31, 2012DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002534