There is a lot of speculative fervor going on. It's like any fad, except you can count the "value" generated by the waves of PR. The underlying tech is clever

There is a lot of speculative fervor going on. It's like any fad, except you can count the "value" generated by the waves of PR. The underlying tech is clever though; the speculation is just a side-effect of cryptocurrency systems that they attract a lot of people who attempt to make a quick buck from during the rapid growth phase. As others have pointed out, this is not a bad thing b/c speculation is one legitimate way that cryptocurrencies can bootstrap themselves, even if (over time) their strengths are not likely to result in more speculative behavior than is found in other established currencies.