Conventional mass media is now getting more interested, not necessarily knowledgeable with the Bitcoin world.
Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman says its Evil
Economist Paul Krugman, just wrote a think piece calling it a "bubble, bubble, fraud, and trouble" in the New York Times. The Nobel Prize winner asserts that "this will end badly, and the sooner it ends, the better", after citing issues with security, use and price manipulation.
Krugman reminds me of a father disapproving of a daughter's flirtation with a new passion. As any rebellious daughter would do, the cryptocurrency crowd is responding with "but you were so wrong in the past!".
To me, these problems sound just like issues with traditional fiat currencies, and investment assets. Many Latin American currencies provide good examples of instability due to inflation. Subprime loans pushed and validated by well-known financial institutions, independent third-party ratings agencies, and respected intellectuals, such as then US Fed Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, were also heavily manipulated beyond common sense (or common decency).
As author George Orwell showed in his great book, "Animal Farm", and political upheavals prove, you can always expect people to be tempted to fill the powerful and profitable voids in the space - perpetuating old problems in a promising new setting.
Corrupt shills and swindlers are already there to take advantage of the overly enthusiastic cryptocurrency newbies. More of them will be doing at home it via Twitter, Youtube, and social media instead of the corner offices of traditional banks and government offices via cable TV and newspapers, or speeches and press releases.
Can be Good, even Great!
Thus, as with cash, cars, or computers, cryptocurrencies are not intrinsically good or bad, it how the community will respond to its actors, institutions, and events. Yes, it can be used for illegal transactions, but the technology can also be leveraged to connect the world faster and share resources beyond traditional borders.
As the technology and ecosystem develops, improvements on efficiency and security will improve not towards perfection but making it more worthy of the attention and resources it attracts - a concern Ethereum leader Vitalik Buterin has conscientiously raised.
Increasing scalability and speed promises great potential to impact society through technology. Strengthening the community and the systems to protect non-insiders from being taken advantage of would ensure serving the greater good.