Bitcoin is nice, but a certain point, I don't see how it can scale. Let's just poke at one of the problems: loss of currency and the ability to inflate. Currently, if I have 100฿ in my wallet and that is lost to technical error (I misplace my USB drive, my computer melts down, etc), it's gone from the system for good. While the blocks were being filled out in the past to generate the initial pool of money, now that it is almost all assigned, they can't "print" more without overwriting blocks that are already owned. On a long enough timeline, bitcoins can only deflate in value and the pool can only shrink, assuming its value against other currencies does not change.

Additionally, I know hacktivists like to hate on any form of central control over a money base. But I was under the impression that all the micromanagement the federal reserve has over printing money and setting lending rates is beneficial to a functional national economy. Bitcoins might work fine for black markets, but what points do they have going for them in a normal economy?