I was thinking about this too. I think I'm more optimistic about the future than I would be if I wasn't aware of Bitcoin. But if Bitcoin fails to deliver freedom -- money that governments can't stop me from using, I will be quite frustrated, but it wouldn't undo all the good of hoping.

It's like if I was a mathematician and energized by working on cryptography because I believed government control of speech was bad, but then it turns out that all the things I was working on had some serious flaw. I think I'd take a hit emotionally, but I also don't think it would be game over. The pattern of hoping that there is some possible way to resist the trend I see toward a 1984 hellscape has been created. I can use the pattern again.

And so even if Bitcoin fails to deliver, the pattern of hoping there is some way to build systems outside of government control is there.