On the other other hand, :-), it's entirely clear that people could be developing code right now in anticipation of the patent expiration and go live with some kind of land rush when it's possible to do so.
Some people expected a "land rush" when the main RSA patents expired several years ago. Parties were even thrown. The land rush never happened.
--Tim May
True, but look at bitpass.com. $1.5 million in capital for a micropayments system with no innovations that amounts to... a stunted version of Paypal? The beauty of a marketplace is that many different parties get to try every which way of satisfying a need. Most will fail. Even the first several attempts can fail, disguising a real opportunity as a guaranteed failure. Patrick lucrative.thirdhost.com