What y'all seem to be ignoring or understating is the utility to CRINIALS. Don't get me wrong, I see a huge difference between "illegal" and "immoral" so I'm not using the term pejoratively. Just as the internet itself and VCRs before that were largely technologies first adopted by the pornography industry, it will be criminals who will use Bitcoin first on a large scale. By the time the governments of the world get serious about stopping it, it will be far too late. This is a very, very good thing. Markets want to be free. We have a rare opportunity to profit tremendously by doing the right thing here and taking Bitcoin mainstream.

The caveat is that speculation can be overdone when leverage is used. BTC is definitely not ready for primetime yet and wide use of margin can collapse the price if liquidity is rapidly removed. selling into a bidless market is every investor's nightmare. When you get your margin call, you are wiped out. I suggest any leveraged speculators to Google "Bunker Hunt" for a specific cautionary tale concerning this peril.