There have been some strong signs of an inflection point in the last couple of weeks.
The FinCEN guidance was a major step forward for Bitcoin, allowing companies to start taking Bitcoin as a serious option.
For example, see this announcement today, from a company that processes payments for local governments. They plan to offer bitcoin acceptance to those governments for all sorts of online payments. You might soon be able to pay local taxes using bitcoin!
You're not paying your taxes in bitcoin. You're paying an amount equal to your taxes, plus transaction fees, to the processor, who then converts your payment into the local currency and remits it to the government.
It's a subtle but important difference, because the use of non-local currencies in a transaction can trigger currency exchange gain/loss reporting requirements (in the US, at least).
The FinCEN guidance was a major step forward for Bitcoin, allowing companies to start taking Bitcoin as a serious option.
For example, see this announcement today, from a company that processes payments for local governments. They plan to offer bitcoin acceptance to those governments for all sorts of online payments. You might soon be able to pay local taxes using bitcoin!
http://www2.egovlink.com/press-release-bitcoin.cfm
They directly state this is a result of FinCEN's statements. The floodgates may be opening.