I won $75 worth of BTC in some competition some years ago. When I finally got around to selling it, it had grown to more than $300.
I also did research on it in college and I have to say: it's a very interesting thing! IMO definitely has the potential to make significant impact on a societal level: a fully information based currency that follows stable and transparent rules rather than the whims/trustworthiness of a government. It's also anti-fragile: people can fork it anytime, to adapt and change it according to whatever problems/shortcomings arise (whichever side of the fork is the most robust is the one people will settle on).
It's still a young currency, so it doesn't yet have the infrastructure around it for it to be as convenient to use as traditional currencies, but that infrastructure is getting built (and it's probably easier to build it for Bitcoin than for traditional currencies). It could also become the international currency of choice, as it would be equally convenient to use in any part of the world (plus, you wouldn't have to worry about exchange rates).
A big shortcoming right now though is that more people speculate on it than use it, which makes its price rather volatile.