I read an interesting theory that Bitcoin was started by the US treasury, and that it was an experiment to help them design a new world currency. They saved the output from the first year's mining to help them control prices later down the line. It's starting to look as if Bitcoins are being removed from the market, and this is a good omen for long term price trends. It will mke it unusable as a payment method though, except for large transactions of course.