This is one of the first papers I've seen which has studied the evolutionary trajectory aspect of the cryptocurrency market. Through this investigation there are several interesting insights worth noting:
Trend data reveals that Bitcoin market icap dominance is decreasing in percentage terms over time.
Monthly birth and death rates of cryptocurrencies on average 1.16% and 1.04%. This indicates that cryptocurrencies don't usually completely die but when they do, it appears a new cryptocurrency replaces it almost 1:1.
There are more interesting insights in the paper but in my opinion this paper is just a good first step in trying to create an ecology of cryptocurrencies for study of the evolutionary dynamics. The technology could evolve in many unpredictable but also predictable ways, and simulations in my opinion may be possible and show interesting data.
References
http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/4/11/170623