I'll restate what I see as the goal of The Bitcoin Project: To give us control over our finances by establishing a stable, secure, global, "democratic" currency.
I think positioning bitcoin as "revolutionizing the financial system" is the goal-- not more radical statement I've heard (like "destabilizing governments"). Most people either like or are indifferent to their governments (I know, I know, sheeple and all that... lets not go there). I don't think most people get the warm fuzzies when thinking about bankers and Big Corporations; bitcoin as "The People's Money" is the right way to think about it.
Also, whenever I talk to the press, I try to be realistic. Bitcoin is still an experiment that has never been tried before; there is still a good chance it will fail, and there is still a lot of work to do to make it stable and secure. I'm excited because bitcoin is a big idea that might change the world for the better, but I also realize that our little project is just a baby compared to the decades-old financial systems that we all use every day.
I think it is important to set expectations; I still wouldn't recommend that my mom use bitcoin for anything just yet, because it is not easy enough to use securely. And the road ahead is likely to be bumpy; there will be technical issues that need fixing, there will be legal questions, there will be price bubbles, and there will be scams. I predict that some company using bitcoins to do something illegal will be caught and prosecuted, and that will be mis-reported as "Bitcoin is illegal."
I said a year ago that creating solid technology was just the first step in a long road for bitcoin. I'm very pleasantly surprised at how far the bitcoin project has come in a year; the innovation and experimentation and level of interest and excitement is fantastic.
Here's an email exchange I had with a reporter yesterday:
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Specifically, do you agree or disagree that this project is "dangerous"? If you disagree, how would you describe the potential significance of bitcoin in a future Internet economy?
New technologies are always at least a little bit dangerous-- they can usually be used for both good and bad (think of gunpowder or ChatRoulette), and are certainly dangerous to the status-quo that they replace (think of cars and buggy-whip-manufacturers).
Bitcoin is a really ambitious project; we're trying to let people take back control of their money instead of trusting bureaucrats or bankers or politicians to keep it stable and safe. It is international, decentralized, and completely open to innovation, very much like the Internet. Like the Internet, I expect its early years to be full of amazing successes and spectacular failures, and I don't think anybody will be able to predict in advance what will succeed and what will fail.
I think the real question is whether or not bitcoin will appeal to the majority of people who are happy with our current financial system. If it doesn't, bitcoin may fade away or end up as a niche currency used for a tiny percentage of global financial transactions.