There will certainly be advancements in the crypto/blockchain space. What coins or companies will be best suited to take advantage of these advancements would likely be the best investments.
Bitcoin does have a first mover advantage, but so did blackberry. There are reasons to believe that it is not the best crypto currency. So, it could very conceivably be replaced. It could also be a speculative bubble. It also could, as you said become a store of value similar to gold.
The gold analogy isn't prefect though. gold is tethered to the economy and has been doing gold things for a very long time. Crypto has been around for 10 years. I don't think gold is a good investment though.
People aren't buying crypto because it is an inflation hedge, but rather to make "funny-money" from the stock market. I've had friends who have never asked about a stock in their lives buying a basket of crypto. An acquaintance of mine, who I would not take financial advice from made $215,000 on a $7,000 speculative play in 4 months. This is bubble behavior.
I have technical degrees and am an ok coder. I understand how the blockchain works. Most people I know that are buying it have no clue and can't articulate why it's value is what it is. Seems speculative.
Also, there has been some leveraged buying of crypto. It would be interesting to know how much, but if there is too much bullish leverage that could unwind quickly and catastrophically.
As such, I personally wouldn't buy coins at $20k+, but I probably wouldn't sell one if I had it. It wouldn't surprise me if it hit $100k or more.
Bitcoin is still deflationary. The problem with a deflationary currency is that you dont want to spend it or put it to work in the economy. You want to save it because it will be worth more later. A recession happens when less money is spent into the ecnomy. So when the economy contracts, currency is held and the economy contracts further. Japan's lost decade can be interpreted as deflationary.
