Even if the analogy isn't spot-on, we're battling one of the biggest advantages Bitcoin and X have: the network effect. @LynAlden  has some cool thoughts on it here: https://www.lynalden.com/bitcoins-network-effect. If we can come up with a game-changing use case (think Bitcoin payments), we might just have a shot at beating the beast. 

Clones or undistruptive improvements will never do it