Wants important is the blockchain technology. As Bitcoin continues to grow it further legitimizes the strength of the blockchain technology which can be applied to many other areas in tech. Bitcoin itself is useless, essentially sending "thin air" back and forth as someone else put it.
I think dismissing Bitcoin and promoting blockchain technology kind of misses the point. Sure, a lot of companies will invest in blockchain tech and maybe roll out their own blockchains, but that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.
A blockchain without a peer to peer/decentralized network and a crypto currency/incentive system is nothing more than an over-architected centralized database.
The trust provided by using a blockchain is based mostly on the incentive for people to secure the network. Sure you can use hashing and encryption to verify transactions without it, but if it is a private chain, then one person with access can perform a 51% attack and alter all of the transactions. That is the exact thing something like Bitcoin is trying to prevent.
I agree that Bitcoin itself may not end up being the final coin that survives in 5 or 10 or 20 years, but it has the first mover advantage and strong brand recognition, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
Lets tone it a down a bit. I'm sure there are idiots who took out a HELOC to buy BTC, just like idiots who did it with gold, or to bet the horses, or buy lottery tickets. A few idiots can't really change the reputation of something. The internet somehow survived through a crash that led the economy into a recession. When/If BTC crashes, it will be a small blip in the economy.
