Since bitcoin is very new it is genuinely hard to tell if it will be eventually seen as brilliant innovation that was destined to be successful or get compared to the Dutch tulip bubble etc.

You raise valid concerns but there are counter arguments to them all so I don't think such a glib dismissal is warranted. From pg's essay[0]

The first time Peter Thiel spoke at YC he drew a Venn diagram that illustrates the situation perfectly. He drew two intersecting circles, one labelled "seems like a bad idea" and the other "is a good idea." The intersection is the sweet spot for startups.

[0] http://www.paulgraham.com/swan.html

Sorry that Macro 101 is "fancy pants". You do realize that something failing the "smell test" is just a reason to investigate further, not a reason to go with one's gut feelings over rational reasoning, right?

worse is better.

Also, has anyone done a energy use per transaction comparison to other payment networks? I'd be surprised if bitcoin was really that bad in comparison to Visa or Paypal if you included all the energy costs that go into security enforcement.