Mainstream Media Should Research Before Publishing Bitcoin Reports

Since bitcoin’s significant price rise over the past couple of months, the digital asset has gained attention from the mainstream media. Lots of them have been quite optimistic and have described the cryptocurrency in a positive light. However, just recently a couple of mainstream publications have tried once again to downplay bitcoin existence.

Also Read: Death & Bitcoin: How I Prepared My Family’s Digital Inheritance

Mainstream Media’s Reports of Bitcoin’s Death are Greatly Exaggerated

Mainstream media has always had shtick against the decentralized cryptocurrency bitcoin. In the early days, you could find article after article detailing the digital assets imminent death. However, when reading these opinionated editorials, you can see quite a bit of confirmation bias, lack of research, and overall stupidity.

Just recently two mainstream publications the Financial Times (FT) and Time Magazine have published two negative articles covering the recent bitcoin price rise. The first editorial written by FT called “Bitcoin passes $1,000 but the only number that matters is zero” basically states the cryptocurrency is worthless. The article in question compares the bitcoin economy in contrast to other larger markets worldwide. To the author these traditional settlement markets manage to put the sum of bitcoin transactions “to zero.” Furthermore, the FT writer describes bitcoin as a significantly sized pyramid scheme or Ponzi.

“As a phenomenon bitcoin has all the attributes of a pyramid scheme, requiring a constant influx of converts to push up the price, based on the promise of its use by future converts,” explains the FT article. “So the ultimate value for bitcoin will be the same as all pyramid schemes: zero.”

It seems the author has a great misunderstanding towards the bitcoin protocol and community. The truth is bitcoin has been called a Ponzi by many mainstream media publications and has been debunked each and every time. Even the World Bank Group has refuted this claim by saying, “contrary to a widely-held opinion, Bitcoin is not a deliberate Ponzi. And there is little to learn by treating it as such.” Additionally, there’s no requirement to convert people to bitcoin. The fact is the cryptocurrency is rising due to natural supply and demand and the ill effects of centrally planned monetary policy, fractional reserve banking, manipulated interest rates, demonetization, hyperinflation, and devalued currencies. These are the real reasons people are investing in bitcoin.    

Time Magazine Details ‘You Shouldn’t Invest in Bitcoin’

On January 5 the publication Time Magazine published a post called “Why You Shouldn’t Invest in Bitcoin.” This particular editorial describes bitcoin as an extremely volatile currency without observing the fact that the nation states currencies and commodities often fluctuate as well. However, the author does recognize that bitcoin has had more than a 100% return over the past year. Yet the publication quotes Campbell Harvey, a professor of finance at Duke University who says bitcoin is “an extremely risky investment.”

Alongside this, the professor says if one is to obtain bitcoin for their portfolio to invest very minimally. “I would never recommend this on a stand-alone basis,” Harvey explains. On the other hand, the Duke professor says citizens living abroad in nations such as Venezuela and China are using it to escape capital controls and cash shortages. Harvey’s opinion says bitcoin’s recent rise is due to these geopolitical environments.

Bitcoin Is Not an Investment, Nor a Ponzi but a Decentralized Tool

Many bitcoiners will tell you that bitcoin is not an investment vehicle and should not be described in such a way. Surely there will always be some people who believe that it is and use it as such. However, in many people’s opinions, bitcoin is merely a financial tool that helps people within the heavily manipulated economies worldwide. It overcomes capital controls, it’s censorship resistant, it costs way less than traditional processors, but more importantly puts wealth back into the hands of the individual.

Mainstream media and these writers have a hard time conceptualizing these attributes. But usually, it’s because these reporters spin off stories with very little understanding of the very subject they write about. It’s entirely possible that journalists such as the FT reporter had just heard about bitcoin and its dramatic price increase and think they are coming up with an ‘original’ argument. The bottom line is with a lack of research a report on bitcoin being a bad investment isn’t well thought out. Even though most bitcoiners will say it is not an investment, bitcoin has outperformed most fiat currencies every year except for 2014. Lastly, without much study, someone could assume the cryptocurrency is a Ponzi, but if they researched more, they would find there is literally ‘zero’ evidence of this opinion.

What do you think about the Financial Times and Time Magazine’s opinions about bitcoin? Let us know in the comments below.

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Images courtesy of Shutterstock, and Pixabay. 

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