The main theme of foreign media reports in 2019: cryptocurrencies will not "die"

At the end of 2017, Bitcoin attracted the interest of millions of people who wanted to capitalize on the enthusiasm of the time and therefore attracted the attention of various traditional media. The media seems largely skeptical of the concept of decentralization, but it continues to report on Bitcoin's volatile price movements.

This year, as regulations in this area have become more stringent, reports on cryptocurrencies have changed significantly. The days of the industry's "wild west" are over, and media agencies-most of which gave bitcoin a death sentence at least once during that time-are now focusing on how cryptocurrencies are entering large tech companies.

Despite this, many onlookers remain skeptical-as can be seen from a tweet from the US President earlier this year. Donald Trump summarized the general concerns about cryptocurrency in 280 words, and most mainstream media have reported on it (the potential impact of Bitcoin's value critique has been very different). Trump's tweet is as follows:

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"I don't like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. They are not currencies. Their value is extremely volatile and fabricated in a vacuum. Unregulated crypto assets can promote illegal behavior, including drug transactions and other illegal activities …"

The following is the relevant reports of mainstream overseas media on Bitcoin and blockchain in 2019.

TV report

CNN

Title: Cryptocurrency Mania

Broadcast time: September 9-September 13

In August last year, Julia Chatterley, the host of CNN's daily global business show First Move, announced that she would host a week-long series called Crypto Crazy, which showed her audience's hope See more about digital currencies. The main goal of the show is to dispel some common misconceptions about cryptocurrencies. It is worth noting that in the first episode, Chatterley asked the guests to explain some of the more advanced concepts-especially for TV viewers, such as counterfeit transaction volume, whale and cold wallet. In the next few episodes, the moderator will focus on the most mainstream cryptocurrency events of the year, including news of the Libra and the Winklevoss brothers trying to bring digital assets to Wall Street.

CBS

Title: Wild Tour of Bitcoin

Broadcast time: May 19

Earlier this year, the US radio and television network CBS devoted 60 minutes to covering the multiple fluctuations of Bitcoin over the past 10 years. To get a first-person perspective, the channel's reporter Anderson Cooper interviewed a number of industry participants, including the main character of the Bitcoin Pizza Festival, where he bought two pizzas for 10,000 Bitcoin, marking the cryptocurrency's First real-world deal. Like everyone who heard this story for the first time, Cooper asked, "Do you really spend $ 80 million on pizza?"

Newspaper report

"New York Times"

Title: Bitcoin Saved My Family

Release time: February 23

In this column, the readers of The New York Times saw a strange case: how Bitcoin-often described as a tax scam for radical liberals and even terrorists-can help those living in poor countries . This article, written by Venezuelan economist Carlos Hernández, explains that due to the extremely high inflation rate, the form of storage assets in the national currency Bolivar is considered "financial suicide." Venezuela's annual inflation rate last year was close to 1.7 million%.

The author changed his bitcoin to Bolivar and went to the grocery store to shop, but due to severe food shortages, he could not find milk in about 20 stores nearby. Still, he had to buy something-otherwise his Bolivar would depreciate-so he chose cheese, which was the closest thing he could find to milk.

Hernández invested all his money in Bitcoin, saying that he is not the only Venezuelan who relies on digital assets-in fact, last April, through the peer-to-peer trading platform LocalBitcoins.com, it was worth $ 1 million in one day Bolivar was replaced with Bitcoin.

Hernández wrote:

"It can be said that cryptocurrency has saved our family. I now pay for my own family. My father is a government employee who works in a paperless printing department and earns about $ 6 a month. My mother is a housewife, No income. Last summer, cryptocurrency helped my 28-year-old brother escape from Venezuela. "

"Guardian"

Title: China's Digital Currency Is the Threat, Libra Is Not

Release time: November 11

Earlier this year, the Guardian chose Kenneth Rogoff, a professor of economics and public policy at Harvard University, to write an article on cryptocurrencies. Rogoff was the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at the beginning of this century.

Rogoff mentioned an important trend: national digital currencies using blockchain. The economist believes that China has made more progress in this area than other countries, and compares China's efforts with Facebook's Libra project. In fact, Zuckerberg himself made a similar analogy at a congressional hearing. "China is moving quickly to launch a similar idea in the coming months," the Facebook CEO said at the time. "If we don't innovate, we can't sit here and take it for granted that because America is the leader today, it will always be the leader."

Rogoff wrote that a widely used Chinese digital currency with a government background will definitely have an impact. He predicts that China's currency will most likely be "permissive" and will therefore have strict controls on all transactions involved in it. Ordinary readers are also beginning to realize that cryptocurrency is not just an internet currency, but a global technology that can change the financial system forever.

Government report

U.S. Department of Justice

Title: Mueller Report

Release time: April 19

Last April, the U.S. Department of Justice released a report from Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller (Mueller Report) detailing his investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. election. One of the main points is that Russian agents are alleged to have used cryptocurrencies multiple times online to undermine elections, hoping to "utilize the anonymity of cryptocurrencies." Specifically, the Mueller report revealed that "the system used to attack the Democratic Party" was paid in bitcoin, and the online hosting services used by the websites that published the attacked materials were also paid in bitcoin. False information. "

Indeed, although cryptocurrencies are known for the anonymity they provide, it has another aspect: all Bitcoin transactions are published on a publicly accessible blockchain, so senders' wallet addresses can be identified and their entire tracked Transaction history.

However, Mueller's investigation concluded that Bitcoin allowed Russians to "avoid direct relationships with traditional financial institutions, allowing them to evade stricter scrutiny of their identities and sources of funds."

Business media reports

"Bloomberg"

Title: The most used cryptocurrency is not Bitcoin

Release time: October 1

Bloomberg is by no means a beginner in the crypto world, as the media has been paying close attention to digital assets for the past few years. Although often criticized by community members for spreading FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt), Bloomberg often gives high-quality insights into this area.

In October last year, they shifted their focus from Bitcoin to Tether (USDT), a popular but controversial stablecoin that maintains a value-to-value ratio of 1 to 1. "Bloomberg" pointed out that Tether's transaction volume exceeded Bitcoin for the first time in April and has remained at the level of $ 21 billion per day since early August.

According to Bloomberg, some traders don't even realize they own Tether. MIT research scientist Thaddeus Dryja told Bloomberg:

"I don't think people really believe in Tether-I don't think they use Tether when they realize they are using it, but instead think they really hold dollars in a bank account."

He noted that some exchanges even gave misleading information to convey the impression that customers held US dollars instead of Tether.

CNBC

Title: Bitcoin is up 200% this year for other reasons-has nothing to do with Facebook

Release time: June 25

Last June, bitcoin was in a long-awaited bull market rally (which ended very quickly), and CNBC tried to find out the reason behind the rise in bitcoin prices. This article suggests that, unlike many people think, Bitcoin's rise has nothing to do with Facebook's entry into this space, but rather a lesser-known reason-a type of event called "half of Bitcoin, every After four years, miners' rewards will be halved. The next halving is expected in May 2020, and a reduction in supply will drive prices up.

Perhaps CNBC was too early to consider the impact of Bitcoin halving, but this well-known media report to mainstream audiences about the complexity of this technology can show that Bitcoin is no longer an "underground activity" as we used to think ".

The Wall Street Journal

Title: If Bitcoin doesn't seem to be trading, it's because there are really no transactions

Release time: December 6

The Wall Street Journal has maintained a conservative attitude towards cryptocurrencies.

Citing data from research firm Flipside Crypto, the Wall Street Journal article reads:

"For most of the first few years, the forces driving the development of the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency industries have been replaced by a sober reality: creating new global currency standards requires more than just computer code."

Obviously, in the last week of November last year, only 14% of the 18 million circulating Bitcoins were active.

As the average daily bitcoin transaction volume declines, the Wall Street Journal continues to write that "institutional investors have hope, and there are already signs of progress in this area," giving the example of Bakkt.

"Financial Times"

Title: U.S. recession could trigger new cryptocurrency boom and bust

Release time: November 14

According to the Financial Times, the global economic recession and the uncertainty of the future of Sino-US trade have caused the United States to fall into a state of economic recession. Cryptocurrencies can serve as a financial safe haven and even experience another round of bull markets. What will follow, however, will be another price slump, the publication argues:

"The last failure showed that gains that have nothing to do with 'real-world' user penetration will not last. Although there is still hope for the underlying digital technology, in addition to the enthusiastic technicians, an important user base needs to be found."

Lifestyle media

The New Yorker

Title: Cryptocurrency 101 in the South Bronx

Release time: December 2

The New Yorker published an article by Carlos Acevado. Acevado is a public school teacher in Morrisania, the poorest congressional district in the United States.

A student at Acevado said:

"When you first mentioned Bitcoin in your class, I only thought about criminals."

For Acevado, cryptocurrencies are more about helping "people without bank accounts"-that's why he created the crypto community project with the goal of building a cryptocurrency economy in South Bronx.

He told the 25 young people attending his course:

"In two days, you will be this 1%, and you know cryptocurrency and blockchain better than 99%. You have the opportunity to enter this industry now."

GQ

Title: Cryptocurrency will not die

Release time: November 26

GQ's Rosecrans Baldwin interviewed some people who were fortunate enough to enter the industry early (and some who had late entry but still enjoyed the bonuses of the crazy days of late 2017)-most of them Hurt, but morale was not affected. "If I have a good car, I will sell it and then enter the market again," one of the interviewees said. Others admit that they sold their car to pay some bills and then re-entered the venue. Needless to say, Baldwin was also surprised by this obsession.

He also tried to understand cryptocurrency transactions for $ 100. He wrote:

"I bought about 20 IOTA for about $ 10 in bitcoin-I know nothing about cryptocurrency trading."

"What is a cryptocurrency?" The author asks in the article. "A few years ago, your cousin might say on Thanksgiving that encryption is the future trend." At the end of the article, he further elaborated on this point:

"Only cryptocurrencies haven't disappeared, they just have become quieter. On this Thanksgiving day, preachers will tell you that cryptocurrencies are stronger than ever and have more connections to the real world, just to tell you It's not your cousin anymore, it's the People's Bank of China, it's Mark Zuckerberg. Talking about cryptocurrency today is more like talking about the climate crisis. "

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