Argument with professor about Fat Protocol Thesis. Please weigh in:

My argument: Look at the last crypto cycle. How many coins that were top ten in 2017 are top ten now? There’s two: BTC and ETH. But, here’s the reflective data: if you expand the list to the top 50, how many are ERC? 33 are. Not surprising, but ERC-based tokens are starting to dominate the mid-tier and slowly move up the list with time.

Her response: This is proof that Ethereum is not benefiting from fat protocol thesis, and that the thesis is wrong.

My counter argument: If that were true, ETH should not have the valuation it does, approximately double what is was last time, and it shouldn’t have the exponential transaction volume. Clearly it’s benefiting.

Her deathblow: The price is due to speculation. [student applause]

My final rebuttal: Even WBTC (wrapped bitcoin) is a top 20 coin now, which is a predatory behavior, because it means the Ethereum protocol is starting to eat things not natively built on it. I then compared email to the USPS and said email hasn’t killed the USPS, but has taken much of what would’ve been its business (too, the usps has come close to insolvency many times). Also I invoked USDC’s growth, noting that it’s now 28% of Tether’s mkt cap and gaining. That was unthinkable two years ago.

Her dismissal: Speculation can do incredible things, see Dogecoin. [student applause]

Random student You got owned fanboy.

I wasn’t satisfied how the argument ended and I’d like the board to weigh-in on this please! Clearly something is going on, even if we’re not certain yet. My longterm view is that if gas fees collapse and staking becomes available to the masses (two promises of 2.0) then ETH/ERC can consume (or straight make burnt toast of) everything not BTC or a privacy coin. I originally got into ETH because I quickly saw the ecosystem expanding and development/coding talent migrating en masse. Please leave thoughts below. Dying to hear some answers.