It needs miners too though doesn't it?  If (when  ) bitcoin starts to catch on as an alternative to Paypal then it's going to grow like mad.  For small payments for Internet provided services bitcoin is just so much better.  If it does gain that kind of interest then there needs to be sufficient processing power underpinning the system to prevent powerful agents from doing monkey business. All in all, I think the whole system is developing very nicely.  I'm not sure it was all planned but it quite amazing to behold.