I've been following Bitcoin since the beginning (that's 6 or 7 years, now?) and you can imagine my frustration, when its price peaked a thousand times and I never considered investing much. Lesson learned - never underestimate a money laundering scheme :D
Yes, I'm pessimistic (realistic from my point of view) that a thousand different cryptos will be widely used. That's highly unlikely - even the use of fiat currencies is consolidating - think of the US and EU monetary history. In general, however, I think that cryptocurrencies are the future of payment and we will see a couple gain wide acceptance.