I think we need to realize that the VC investments are in crypto companies, not bitcoin. If another coin takes over, it shouldn't be hard for these companies to pivot. Particularly if governments decide to push out their own coin and harshly regulate bitcoin. I think this (among 100000 other reasons) is why most "real" VCs don't invest directly in bitcoin the coin.
By real, I mean reputable ones like Fred Wilson.
Yeah because investing $836m into unsafe coins is a wise decision. These investments are for the sake of Bitcoin. Altcoins are just a disturbance (only a handful are worth a second look), but there is a smaller market out there for them too.
Since you're pretty much convinced, could you please tell me when was the last time you could buy an altcoin at over 7,000 ATMs (i.e. this is just one example, adoption is much bigger:
http://www.coindesk.com/coinplug-enables-bitcoin-buying-at-over-7000-regular-atms/) ?
Can you tell me what I'm convinced of? Because I don't know. What I do know is, I hope bitcoin succeeds rather than another coin, because as a selfish human being, I hope I made the right choice so I can profit myself.
This is why I think pointing out potential pitfalls in being too bullish is important. I think we should be a little paranoid, even too paranoid to make sure that the one that succeeds absolutely is bitcoin. If, for example, I was able to increase bitcoin's success rate by 0.00001% by talking about possible points of failure, then that's something.
I am not at all ashamed to say that I am in this for potential profit rather than political or ideological belief of a decentralized monetary system. I strongly believe in bitcoin's technology and think that it will succeed, though I don't particularly value decentralization myself. It's like how no matter how much money I have, I will never buy a Louis Vuitton bag, though I can understand that many other people value it. Because of this, I feel that I can offer a different voice, different from the strong ideological/political believers, but also different from the troll-bears. I suspect that most people in the world don't care for decentralization or killing fiat. But sometimes, because of the demographics of this forum, we are led to believe that decentralization, anonymity etc, are so important that people will run to bitcoin once they realize its usefulness. I don't think that will happen.