The world needs a decentralized currency that cannot be controlled by national governments, who manipulate currency values to suit their own agendas. The overall effect that the internet has had on the world is to destabilize the established positions of power, and that has slowly been happening to dozens of industries and sections of society – information, education, government, manufacturing, and now we’re in the early stages of finance and currency.
Bitcoin means that the market actually controls the value of the currency because it cannot be regulated, and no one can add new supply to the currency since that is controlled and automated to ensure stability.
That doesn’t mean that this isn’t a bubble, or that the price of Bitcoins will collapse, because that could happen. But the future for cryptocurrency in general – money that cannot be seized and manipulated by national governments – is very real and will only grow. Especially if we are actually moving towards another, larger financial crash which has been predicted by many, like Peter Schiff (who was one of the few who correctly predicted the 2008 US housing crash). His belief is that the dollar will ultimately be doomed by Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve constantly adding to the money supply, inflating the currency, and running a growing trade deficit along with government expenditures that are too high. The highest investment rate we can afford right now (in the US) is 0%, which means there aren’t a lot of great places to keep your money. Bitcoin, for now, seems to be a safe place for Europeans to store their money, and as time passes it could gain more trust (and value) as other world currencies face the same threat of government seizure or devaluation.