What mistakes do mainstream media often make when reporting on Bitcoin?

It can be said that there is indeed a tendency for mainstream media to distort the facts when reporting on Bitcoin.

Although Bitcoin has received more and more attention from the media compared to the past, which is a good thing, for example, some media reporters have begun to take digital currency and its underlying technology seriously, but the media still has various errors in understanding Bitcoin, which is a headache for Bitcoin enthusiasts.

Some reports are full of problems, while others are even laughable. Here is a summary of the mistakes that mainstream media are prone to making.

1. Searching for Satoshi Nakamoto

Mainstream media likes to get to the bottom of mysterious things, so they can't help but wonder who created Bitcoin. Although they know that the inventor is anonymous and is called Satoshi Nakamoto, who is Satoshi Nakamoto? So far, no one can be 100% sure, so the media has also joined the ranks of looking for Satoshi Nakamoto, and has claimed more than once that they have found the real Satoshi Nakamoto.

In 2014, Newsweek claimed that they had found the real Satoshi Nakamoto -多利安•中本聪, an unemployed engineer with no background in cryptography.

Of course, after the report came out, the engineer came out and denied that he was Satoshi Nakamoto. Despite this, Newsweek and the reporter of the report, Leah McGrath, not only did not apologize to the engineer, but instead repeatedly emphasized in a statement that their hypothesis was valid.

In desperation, the engineer had to publicly announce that he would sue Newsweek, but the lawsuit would cost a lot of money. In order to raise funds, he created a website called "Newsweek Lies". When you open the website, you will see a photo of him holding a sign that read: "Newsweek, you hurt me and my family."

The engineer's attorney, Ethan伊桑•基施纳, told Ars Technica:

"Goodman showed up at his home unexpectedly, intimidated his elderly mother, obtained his email address by fraudulent means, and forged statements made by him and his brother. They disclosed his health, financial status, and employment history."

The engineer isn’t the only person to be mistakenly identified as Satoshi Nakamoto.

At the end of 2013, a blogger斯凯•格雷used language style analysis to point out the close relationship between尼克•萨博and the Bitcoin white paper.

哈尔•芬尼, a pioneer in cryptography and the first person (other than the founder) to use the Bitcoin protocol, is often considered Satoshi Nakamoto.

2. Bitcoin CEO

We all know that Bitcoin is a decentralized P2P network, but Bitcoin is often misunderstood as a company. For example, in March last year, we saw a news headline like "Bitcoin CEO Dies Tragically, Suspected Suicide." The deceased was actually奥特姆•瑞克, CEO of First Meta, a virtual currency trading platform.

Rick is not the first person to be dubbed the “CEO of Bitcoin” by the media.史蒂夫•博勒加德, CEO of bitcoin payment processor GoCoin, was also dubbed the “CEO of Bitcoin” by a reporter from the Santa Monica Mirror.

Recently,雅虎新闻also called马克•卡尔普斯(known as Fatso in the industry) the "CEO of Bitcoin."

3. Bitcoin Football is Gone

Earlier this year, CBS Sports published an article beginning with “Bitcoin Football Game Gone for Good,” and went on to note that “Just one year after the Bitcoin Football Game in St. Petersburg, Florida, sponsors are abandoning Bitcoin.”

However, because Bitcoin is neither an entity nor a company as is commonly believed, it cannot be separated from any kind of social activity.

The article alludes to the fact that bitcoin payment processor BitPay has agreed to drop its college football sponsorship.

4. Bitcoin has lost its vitality

If this headline is true, then Bitcoin has died several times in its relatively short history.

Due to the huge controversy surrounding Bitcoin, some media reporters always like to predict the death of digital currency prematurely, and some articles even read like Bitcoin's obituary.

Of course, it is undeniable that digital currencies do have a turbulent history of ups and downs, but the media focuses too much on their volatility.

When people in the cryptocurrency circle see these funny reports, they sometimes just treat them as a form of entertainment and laugh it off, but some erroneous reports also make Bitcoin enthusiasts angry, so media reports still need to be cautious!