What? Talk about moving the goalposts. This argument doesn't make any sense at all. Following your same logic, the Segway was a rousing success: It might not last forever, but thousands of tourists and mall cops around the world ride it every day.

To put another way: I don't think anyone was skeptical that bitcoin was a clever (if terribly inefficient) technical demonstration, and that it has some limited utility for facilitating the purchase of illegal goods online. What we've all been skeptical (and rightly remain skeptical) of are the grandiose claims made by bitcoin believers: That it will revolutionize the global economy, that it will displace the USD as the global reserve currency, that it is The Future of Money (tm), etc.