I used to play a lot of poker. Even semi-professionally for a while. I'll never forget the "boom switch" that was flipped on when an "average Joe" named Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker in 2003, for $2.5 million, on a $40 initial investment...
People eat that shit up. Everyone wanted to get involved all of a sudden.
We could be priming for a huge bubble, which hopefully doesn't undermine Bitcoin's real value and innovation - not as a "get rich quick" scheme. I suppose only time will tell.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_Series_of_Poker_Main_Event_champions (notice entrants after 2003)
i find your reasoning convincing. this will get a lot of people curious. more stories like this will pop up, the media will love it. much faster than the bitcoin protocol will be used mainstream, bitcoin as a speculative asset will hit the streets and become popular. that´s how new people get involved. love it or hate it, it is this crazyness about bitcoin gaining such incredible value in less than 5 years that will cause a boom, not its technological elegance. people may think that it can´t rise at the same rate, but even a slower rate would still dwarf what they get from classical investments in less than 5 years.