The question that I would pose with all of the recent volatility in price, is this volatility hurting the bitcoin as a fungable unit of commerce.  The whole point of having bitcoin is to replace fiat currencies.  This will not happen until:

1) the price is stable enough that goods can actually be priced in bitcoin
2) the stability of fiat money decreases such that bitcoin becomes a reasonable alternative

One of the things that I think was overlooked was that every currency that has been successful in the passed that is fiat has done so by having some mechanism by which to initially peg a value to that currency.  In the case of the dollar it was gold and silver and in the case of post WWII europe it was the dollar.  Only in the seventies did the currencies begin to float with nothing backing them at all.  I am wondering how price stability will be achieved for bitcoin overtime.