According to your definition of success and failure, if Bitcoin fails, it will never be successful since what would enter circulation would be printed Bitcoin IOUs. It would be a Gold Standard 2.0. However, with the "success" of stablecoins in maintaining dollar hegemony, this standard might never happen. This leaves room for the Bitcoin success you mentioned, which is what I believe in: peer-to-peer, local voluntary exchanges, outside the game. Slow and steady, resilient.
According to your definition of success and failure, if Bitcoin fails, it will never be successful since what would enter circulation would be printed Bitcoin IOUs. It would be a Gold Standard 2.0. However, with the "success" of stablecoins in maintaining dollar hegemony, this standard might never happen. This leaves room for the Bitcoin success you mentioned, which is what I believe in: peer-to-peer, local voluntary exchanges, outside the game. Slow and steady, resilient.