As a long term currency I've never felt that bitcoin would last. Too many people are using bitcoins as an investment rather than as a currency and so it will never realize it's true goal of being a widely used replacement for current currency.
As bitcoins become harder to mine, they will become more scarce. However, in order for it to succeed, there needs to be some scarcity and demand for it. Apple Pay and others like it that will come out over the next few years will kill the demand. So what you'll have in bitcoin is a rare, obsolete digital currency.
Bitcoin needs to be adopted my more than just the techies that currently like it, it needs to be used by the regular population. The regular population will never use it. The regular population will use Apple Pay.
The reason I was in on MELY was to try and ride the wave of hype surrounding bitcoin, unfortunately I appeared to be a little late and bitcoin will likely start on a slow death, along with MELY.
Brett certainly had the right idea though, use company shareholders to buy all his mining equipment, and then mine all the coins he can while bitcoin still has decent value. MELY has to pay back the banks and lenders, he doesn't have to pay back the shareholders. he's been printing free money with shares to pay for his servers, which he then is able to convert into a few hundred dollars per day, all of which goes into his pockets, not the investor's.
