It's almost two years later and I stand by everything I said, with two exceptions:

1) There can be more than one cryptocurrecy if they use different proof-of-work. This is one of the points unk was trying to make. He was right, I was wrong. This is why I did not foresee the rise of litecoin. However, for psychological reasons I believe bitcoin will always be the gold to litecoin's silver.

2) Speculating on bitcoin because you believe the price will rise does produce wealth, and does not merely represent a wealth transfer, for the reasons Terpie was arguing - it signals that others ought to take a look. They benefit from this because bitcoin actually is the future of money.