I dont think virtual currency is here to stay in the slightest.
The only thing keeping bitcoin and everything else up is the will power and whimsey of its principle stake holders.
Allow me to sum up the entirety of the virtual currency system as it stands:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ujRE2IkEIo
Thats it.
Seriously thats it.
The global financial system is the only government Man has ever had, and arguably the backbone of its religions as well. Jesus was doing fine until he fucked with the money lenders in the temple. Nothing has changed.
Once the exchanges stabilize, and handful of whales will jack the price up through a series of orchestrated trades. Again. And still all bitcoin will be is a virtual Visa gift card with a bunch of fancy math behind it. People think that math makes bitcoins what they are. Quite the opposite, all that math and theory is simply smoke and mirrors in front the exact same thing you buy at the 7-11; a gift card.
The one difference between a gift card and a bitcoin is that the gift card's currency is backed by not just one government but effectively by all governments. So it has a reasonably static value.
If there is a "virtual currency" waiting to be born, it will be born by a nation state, and it will be directly backed by some form of currency, be it bonds or oil reserves or diamonds or big titted virgins. What it wont be is some mathematic riddle, which has absolutely no value to anyone, ever.