You don't understand the virtual currency space. There are many good arguments against virtual currencies or bitcoin specifically, but the lack of Silicon Valley interest is absolutely not one of them.
It's not that I am against virtual currency and think there is no interest in it -- I just think the Bitcoin scheme is so f__ked that respected corps don't wanna be involved.
I'm not surprised at all that Google invested in an alternative. In fact, maybe that will catalyze Bitcoin's demise.
You might have missed the news that Baidu (basically China's equivalent of Google) have started accepting Bitcoin as payment for their services. It's unlikely that Baidu is able to do that without approval (or at least guidance) from the Chinese Government. That's partly what has sent Bitcoin soaring, the theory that China views Bitcoin as a viable alternative currency to USD, and they want to dominate it before other countries do.
This is interesting but where you go off the rails is with the word "dominate". If it's a currency and very easily divisible (move some decimal places) why would one need to dominate it?
You Bitcoiners claim to be more than just a mound of greedy speculators yet you view everything as a hoarder/trading scenario.