Ethereum is a bet that contracts will be able to become digitized, decentralized and trustless to a greater degree. Forget about the technicalities for a second. If it's theoretically possible - what's the value of that tool?

In theory you could deploy a democracy as a contract. You could deploy a currency with a deterministically democratic central bank. You can create crowdfunded employee-owned work communes that pay dividends to member holders.

From a global perspective, if you ask yourself - is there anywhere that could benefit from such a system - and the answer is "yes" - then I think crypto is a great hedge against legacy systems.