It's probably no more fantastic than out-competing the world banking system.
not sure what you mean
Sometimes I get the feeling that people protest reactively and simply want a revolution. I even sometimes find myself hoping that the global economies crash.
I see social networking like Wirtland as a niche, but not a substitute for participating in local community development. Global networking is fine, but I find myself losing touch with my neighbors. Bitcoin is attempting to redress the need for a global currency when we probably don't need one. I'm not saying that it's here to fix a problem that doesn't exist, because there really is a global financial crisis. I'm just saying that the solution may not need to be a global one, but a local one instead. If people participate in governance instead of fantasizing about it, we may not have an economic crisis tomorrow. It's not fiat money that is the problem, it's corruption and greed.
Bitcoin may be the "antibiotic" that will kill the infection of greed that has spread across the globe, but having global solutions to finance may cause us to overlook our own community. I hope Bitcoin development will give us tools to take our community assets out of the 'globalists' control, (i.e. land contracts, small business loans, purchase agreements, etc.) without worry of having them sold off and dealing with overly complex terms and conditions designed to mislead consumers.
Hopefully a common money will lead to developing and following examples of good business practice. If Bitcoin can do all that some folks claim it can then great, but if not then that's okay too because it's a lot easier to fix local problems than global ones. If Bitcoin stays as a niche tool, then hopefully it will be useful to prevent future global crises while we focus on problems at home.