Why is it that Bloomberg and CNBC are giving so much coverage lately to Bitcoin? I remember when I first learned about Bitcoin and was convinced it was a scam - unbacked money? - no way. Then I remembered that nobody backs money anymore - no silver or gold behind anything, just the promise of the most unreliable of people - politicians. But I agree bitcoin may be in a bubble. Anything that fluctuates wildly and then explodes may be in a bubble. But that is not the real story. The real story is that programmable distributed ledgers that enforce reciprocal terms on all participants is AMAZEBALLS.
I don't have any idea which coin is going to predominate or even if we will end up with hundreds of solid coins supporting different business processes and business models. What I do know is that the pundits are playing catch up and that they are lost in the frame of unbacked money. Most of their BS only peripherally touches on the concept of Blockchains. So don't be scared off by them. Instead, learn about the many approaches to permanent ledgers that cross business models and the infrastructure that supports them and buy a coin or two - so you have some skin in the game and can learn from practical experience what this new world - and it is a new world - is about.
