I'm tempering my enthusiasm for bitcoin because scarcity is not enough to create value. Yes bitcoin has scarcity built-in by design but that is the only thing it seems to have.
The main thing here is developing a market for bitcoins. I am actually optimistic about this happening. I saw an article about a small restaurant in NYC now accepting bitcoins. This is crucial. It needs to go beyond small techie products to really gain traction. Given network effects, I think bitcoin can succeed in this area. I am actually quite confident bitcoin will be around in 5 years, but whether or not it will change things much I'm not so sure.