I finally took the plunge and bought one bitcoin. Coinbase takes care of all the messy wallet security so the purchase was pretty painless. A little over a year ago when they were about $25 I almost bought 4 of them but decided it was too risky (big mistake).
To me the purchase is like taking out an option on the future. Bitcoins will either go to $10,000+ or 0. If they catch on and become widely accepted their value will skyrocket. Alternatively a major damning security flaw could be found and bitcoin will be a blip in history.
The promise of cheaper transaction fees in the 1% range instead of the 2-3% we currently see with credit cards is long overdue. Milton Friedman predicted their rise back in 1999.
All the press and the increasing merchant acceptance of bitcoins points to a bright future. Hopefully my option pays off.