Bitcoin might fail but it's not a waste. It's inspired a whole wave of alternate crypto-currencies and gotten the public excited in general for them. And wallet

Bitcoin might fail but it's not a waste. It's inspired a whole wave of alternate crypto-currencies and gotten the public excited in general for them. And wallet and exchange service and a general ecosystem of services have sprung up that could (and do) support any virtual currency. That's all value that can't be lost at this point. As far as wasting people's time and effort, my hunch is that most people are devoting their hobby time to this and in the process learned a little bit about economics and computer hardware. That time would have probably been spent on computer gaming or aimless web surfing anyhow.