Oh dear, @jarapley is the latest to join the "I know nothing about who uses Bitcoin, but that's not going to stop me writing about it club" It's a step back for @unherd who had previously done some genuine investigative journalism through the work of @ianbirrell who took time to travel to Africa to learn how Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining was being used. John Rapley seems to have decided that such actual research was unnecessarily, and it was easier to perpetuate a series of lazy neuro-associations between Trump politics and Bitcoin, while using the terms Bitcoin and crypto interchangeably. Rapley even throws in Bitcoin obituary number 441 "But the past fortnight could also be a harbinger of its eventual demise." - apparently unaware of the 440 journalists before him (source: https://bitcoindeaths.com/) who have predicted its demise, often based on data as robust as a 10% price pullback. Other than adding himself to the stockpile of "journalists" who Bitcoin humbled, John's core arguments read like a highlights real of long-debunked FUD from 2021. Let's look at 2 of Rapley's more ludicrous arguments: 1. "Beyond that, though, not much remains of Bitcoin’s early, idealistic vision." I honestly wonder whether journalists like John are asked not to research before they write, because they will discover facts at the first layer of scrutiny that contradict their ability to write a lazy hitpiece. OK, firstly Bitcoin is used by ~426Million people (source: https://x.com/woonomic/status/1785306024662143025), many of whom are in the global south. It is following a similar growth trajectory to the Internet. Its predominant uses include protection against high/hyperinflation, protection against state weaponization of the fiat monetary system against human rights activists, remittance payments, getting money safely across borders for refugees and preventing state-level gender discrimination in countries such as Afghanistan. I have covered 19 of its uses here https://x.com/DSBatten/status/1833875802326175939 The fact you are aware of precisely 0 of them is a statement about the quality of your research, not a statement about the quality of Bitcoin's fulfilment of its vision. 2. "too cumbersome and volatile to be useful as a medium of exchange." Incorrect again! It is already very widely used as a medium of exchange. Once again, the fact you are unaware of this is an inditement of how much research you did, not how much value Bitcoin has. For example: earlier this month 650,000 merchants in South Africa started using Bitcoin as a medium of exchange. https://x.com/MoneyBadgerPay/status/1975851444164075606. The rest of the article is basically an attempt to pin the tired "now bankers and bitcoiners look the same" tag on Bitcoiners, but looking at the subset of ~10,000 Bitcoiners who are like Bankers, rather than the 426Million who are not. Do better @unherd ! This sort of article does nothing for your reputation which had previously been trending in a Bitcoin-aware direction prior to this throwback.(Daniel Batten)