1. Bitcoin to me means a glimmer of hope of achieving true financial sovereignty in my lifetime.
I strongly believe that the reason for most of the suffering in the entire world today is because people have forgotten what money really is and have been all to willing to relinquish the control over money to governments, bankers and big corporations. Without central banks and legal tender laws enforcing every fiat currency there is, no way the governments could be so big or even exist, there is no way governments, bankers and big corporations could get bail-outs at almost zero rates at the expense of the taxpayers, there's no way all these wars could be fought and payed for, there's no way people could get robbed blind by the transfer of wealth through inflation caused by creating money out of thin air by central banks and fractional reserve banking, there's no way markets would drive up such huge and devastating bubbles, there's no way the vast majority of people could have been financially enslaved to a life of constant hard work and mindless consumption barely scraping by not to mention being broke at old age.
Bitcoin could potentially change all that. I believe a commodity money like gold or silver would too but those are just too easily controlled by men with guns. Bitcoin cannot be controlled by anyone. It is governed by computing power and the laws of math. Everyone has to follow the same rules that were agreed upon at it's conception, everyone knows the rules and can plan their future based on those rules. No one can stop anyone from either receiving or sending Bitcoins and no one is forced to disclose who they transact with if they choose to remain private which means everyone using them is entirely and completely financially autonomous.
Bitcoin frankly to me means a chance at true freedom.
2. Obviously I believe Bitcoin has a huge potential as a monetary unit or currency in it's future. As long as the technology can maintain it's integrity I believe it will succeed. Since it's practically impossible to stop by men with guns I believe it will prosper if nothing else it will be a huge success in the black market. Because of it's rules I believe those holding Bitcoins will be rewarded once the issuing of new Bitcoins slows down. And finally if it so happens and Bitcoin doesn't succeed we now have a blueprint that can be improved upon and we'll potentially see new and better versions.
3. The best use so far has to be in international transfer of money. It is hands down the best, fastest, cheapest and safest way without any nosy and costly middlemen. Second best use so far that I've seen has to be wikileaks being able to receive donations despite the men with guns freezing their paypall and mastercard accounts which is just one small example of it's true power.
4. Like I said, in my view, everything depends on the question whether or not Bitcoin's technology can maintain it's integrity meaning it must be able to maintain the agreed upon rules and cryptographic security. If it can, I believe the sky is the limit.
5. Bitcoin the system probably not. But we definitely need better layers above the core system to make the technology more user friendly and accessible to a much broader audience.
6. Another great thing about Bitcoin is that is governed by true free market forces. Finally we have a real experiment, which can't be manipulated in anyway that will show us once and for all that freedom is the best way for a society to govern itself and that all the retarded economic theories out there about how we need a government to regulate or tax and provide certain services, how we need a central bank to monitor the fiat currencies, how we need the bankers to facilitate trade will be put to rest. And good riddance, I will happily dance on these theory's graves.
One more thing, before you start preparing your TED speech, please watch this video and try to incorporate it's advice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4ZoJKF_VuA