What is most interesting to me is that academia are even talking about adopting it. To me, that's an important first step. Many of them will get it wrong of course, but after watching how MIT handled introduction to Bitcoin I'm not worried at all - 'here's your wallet, go create stuff.' I don't care if they get it wrong, Bitcoin (and the network) will eventually set them right.
Because Bitcoin protocol can be adopted to so many things, we should expect all manner of power brokers believing they need to or even can 'control' its usage. If I had to pick one thing that wrongful thinking economists need to figure out it is the power of the decentralized trust network effect - I don't think they comprehend what it means to the seat of power. To me, these economists are like people assembling a bridge out of popsicle sticks, debating how traffic will flow and what tolls they will charge while Bitcoin simply doesn't care as it it too busy moving boulders and pouring concrete.
If the greatest feature of Bitcoin is building trust where trust never existed before, we should welcome any and all debate between untrusted parties and hash it out on the blockchain. Even if they think they can control Bitcoin, welcome their efforts. The moment any of those controls become abusive to the greater number of users that blockchain will cease to exist and another will sprout up to take its place.
I agree 100% with Andreas Antonopoulos, the cat is out of the bag. Consider many of the uninformed modern economists as little children who we've given toy hammers and we let them play with the concept until they suddenly realize that economies and everything they knew about them are about to be redefined. This is World Changing thinking, out with the old rules and in with the new rules - it's just going to take a little time.
As far as a totally paperless/coinless currency that is dependent 100% upon electricity, I believe the Professor is wrong as there will always be coins, commerce can't stop simply because the power went out. There's always a handshake or a promise. Iif pressed I imagine a local script could be created based on the blockchain - one can manually create a transaction (on paper) if they wish:
http://www.righto.com/2014/02/bitcoins-hard-way-using-raw-bitcoin.html <- This is what the good Professor may some day be teaching.
