I just wanted to take a moment to relay my gratitude to aTriz and nearmiss. This has been a horrible situation and you guys have done an amazing job of stepping up to the plate. Thanks for your hardwork, and I'm looking forward to hashing my way through 2014 with the HashCows crew. Moo!
It all comes down to one factor, will BitCoin become mainstream? If so, there is little reason to suspect the value of BitCoin won't explode compared to the dollar. If we see a time where BitCoin is used for even a small fraction of commerce (e.g. 10%), the demand for BitCoin is going to skyrocket.
This, of course, is purely conjecture. There are a fair number of issues with BitCoin that are fundamental to the nature of the coin itself. First and foremost, one of the biggest boons of BTC is the irreversibility of transactions. This is also one of its biggest detractors. It is all too easy for a party to solicit BitCoins for a transaction and fail to deliver. If the customer fails to receive the product or service or is dissatisfied with what they've received, they are entirely at the mercy of the solicitor to make things right. Once larger organizations begin accepting BitCoin, public opinion may be sufficient to hold their feet to the fire, but this recourse will not have much impact with smaller organizations or individuals.