I'm not a bitcoin expert and don't even research it that much...

but...

I simply don't see how the currency is going to survive in the state it's in. I believe it needed at least 6 more months of hyped up shit in order for it to survive. I say this because in order for it to survive it needed (1) technologies, services, sites, etc built using it and (2) get more people to actually start using it for online purchases.

ie: it's nice that you could buy from overstock.com using your BTC but the one item I bought from overstock.com, I used my paypal as I was at work and my paypal information was already in my head. Of course, my online shopping habits may differ from others but I would love to see the stats of how many people who had btc actually used btc for online purchases where they had the option to use their debit card / paypal or btc. Sites like overstock, etc. Not sites like silkroad, etc.

Unfortunately, the excitement (and price) dropped before any really awesome technologies could be built using bitcoin and before any real demand for it from an economic perspective was created for it. In order for it to be stable it needs to be useful, easy to use and people's habits need to change to use it over older technologies. That last one is going to be a hard one to overcome.

Just like Apple changed the micropayments environment with their iTunes accounts and iTunes cards and shit. Just like Amazon changed the ease of purchasing with one-click purchasing. The ease of use and habit forming behavior needs to happen with BTC. We simply haven't seen that. Combine that with the fact that there aren't a ton of things to do with BTC, online ecommerce as a whole has been steadily eliminating pain points that used to be common, and the fact that the fluctuating / plummeting price makes it even harder for people who bought BTC in the $400-$1400 to spend it today - I see this as a pretty significant hole that BTC may not be able to crawl out of.

Only time will tell though.