In fact, Matonis's biggest contribution might just be sheer civility, precluding many instances of the kind of thoughtless flame war that plagues most beginnings.
+1
Matonis's blog on Forbes has the best insights on the economic aspects of bitcoin that I've found anywhere:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/Hiding from politics won't work for much longer - you'd better believe the US feds are mounting a massive assault
on Bitcoin. Based on prior scenarios, I'd assume that there will be a mainstream media FUD campaign, a legal
attack on bitcoin users, and probably an underground attack on the infrastructure...