2012-09-27 The Economist - "Monetarists Anonymous"

[BitPay Business Solutions]

http://www.economist.com/node/21563752

But in the nine months since, Bitcoin has recovered. One unit now costs $12, and the volume of transactions is increasing. Though the price still fluctuates against the dollar, it is less volatile than it was, which makes it a better store of value.

Tony Gallippi, the boss of Bitpay, which processes Bitcoin payments for retailers, says that his client list has increased from around 100 in March to 1,100 now. These are mostly e-commerce businesses, selling things like domain names and web hosting.

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[Technomage]

This is big! Finland mentioned again.. whee

[kiba]

It is the world’s first, and so far only, decentralised online currency.

Wrong, just the world oldest and most successful.

[jgarzik]

Bitcoins tend not to be very secure, says Richard Booth, a consultant at RSA, a cyber-security firm.

Big sigh.

Though the paragraph does go on to mention bitcoin thefts, it fails to distinguish between the secure-and-unbroken currency and poorly secured wallets.

[Stephen Gornick]

http://www.economist.com/node/21563752

From the printed edition.   

That doesn't happen often.

[BitPay Business Solutions]

From the printed edition.   
That doesn't happen often.

Agreed.  I think it comes out this Saturday Sept 29.

[jgarzik]

Overall, great press.  My household has a subscription; looking forward to seeing it.

[elux]

But in the nine months since, Bitcoin has recovered. One unit now costs $12, and the volume of transactions is increasing. Though the price still fluctuates against the dollar, it is less volatile than it was, which makes it a better store of value. Its use as a means of exchange is also getting easier: an increasing number of online retailers take the currency, and new smartphone apps make Bitcoins almost as easy to use as cash. A proliferation of exchanges means that it is relatively easy to swap Bitcoins for conventional currencies.

As far as press coverage goes, this is pretty good.

PLAYBOY: What do you read?
GATES: The Economist, every page.

Circulation   1,574,803 (print); 100,000 (paid digital subscribers). [1]

Economist subscribers are 90% male and 10% female and their average personal income is circa £111,000 with a household income of circa £140,000. The average net wealth of an economist reader is £1,300,000

[BitPay Business Solutions]

I grabbed a print copy.  The article is in this print edition (Sept 29-Oct 4 Issue)

Page 80

[Roger_Murdock]

Tony Gallippi, the boss of Bitpay, which processes Bitcoin payments for retailers, says that his client list has increased from around 100 in March to 1,100 now. These are mostly e-commerce businesses, selling things like domain names and web hosting.

The "boss of Bitpay"? What kind of organization are you running over there, Tony?

[fornit]

he asked to have the wording changed, they refused. a mysterious series of accidents among the editorial staff is still ongoing, though probably unrelated. 

[allthingsluxury]

Wow that is great news, not a bad article. Bitcoin be mentioned more and more, not a bad thing in my books. My company is proof that more merchants are accepting bitcoin. We just recently started accepting bitcoins and have had great success with it so far. I am also actively trying to convince other businesses in my community to accept the use of them.

[Vandroiy]

Wut! Reads this week's Economist... SUDDENLY, BITCOINCHARTS!

It's an awesome newspaper, probably the world's best. I certainly don't reach that "average net wealth" of the Economist reader, but I still enjoy reading news that care about facts instead of just spamming headlines.

It's fair from their perspective to care about the empirical record of security, not theoretical and technical details. Once a variety of clients with good security properties (offline signing, Multisig) dominates, the impression changes. But right now, because humans make mistakes, dealing with Bitcoins does tend to not be very secure, so a warning is more than appropriate.

The article is a great and very concise summary of Bitcoin's history. The impression it leaves is just right IMO: not hyping it, not demonizing it, just observing what happens.

[Stephen Gornick]

The article is a great and very concise summary of Bitcoin's history.

Mental note for the next time Bitcoin appears in The Economist print edition ... is to remember what happened the last time bitcoin appeared in The Economist print edition:



 - http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/mtgoxUSD#rg60zig6-hourzczsg2012-09-27zeg2012-10-03ztgTzm1g10zm2g25zcv


Here was a 2011 appearance in The Economist:

Digital currencies - Bits and bob
Bitcoin has got geeks excited. What about economists?
 - http://www.economist.com/node/18836780

And its online article:
 - http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/06/virtual-currency

[foo]

I grabbed a print copy.  The article is in this print edition (Sept 29-Oct 4 Issue)

Page 80

Hm, I leafed through this issue at the train station today, and there is nothing about Bitcoin on page 80 of the European edition... I didn't have time to read the whole magazine though.

[Technomage]

The article is there at least in the edition we have in Finland. In fact it has created unusual buzz over Bitcoin. This article is bigger than I initially thought, it's huge. A neutral-positive article in a very respectable magazine does make waves. Based on the tweets yesterday I think that here in Finland we'll finally get our first proper article on Bitcoin in an economy magazine. I don't know, but I would bet that the article has created interest elsewhere as well. And the right kind of interest, in the right kind of people.

[World]

UK print edition (Sept 29-Oct 4 Issue) page 83

[firefop]

Nice to see good press... on the otherhand - we're about to a slight (2day?) downward trend...

but it should be slight - probably just under 12 before it starts climbing again.