Ben Thompson with some interesting perspective on Bitcoin, what it could be outside of a monetary instrument, and alternate use cases for the underlying technology.
…what is most exciting about Bitcoin, at least from my perspective, are the first two points that Bitcoin specifically, and the applications enabled by the Blockchain broadly, are digital (with all its attendant advantages, including worldwide instantaneous transferability, divisibility, tracking, etc.) yet scarce in stark contrast to everything on the Internet that can be copied at no cost, much to the detriment of content producers in particular. This means Bitcoin could theoretically be used for all sorts of transactions, including messages, contracts, identity verification, etc., and, of course, monetary ones, where todays digital applications just dont work.