When I starting paying attention to bitcoin about 2 years ago, I could have had them for less that $20 each. The real potency of bitcoin is not just that it is successful (it is) but that it has the potential to replace monopolized currencies. One of the key pillars of State control over it people it the currency monopoly. Bitcoin and it's successors threaten that state/bank control. Thus the congressional jabber-walling now going on in the U.S.