Yeah the article has it correct. In the video on the article he opens with talking about the paper and said it came out in 2010. Maybe he first saw it then.
Part of Bitcoin/crypto success was due to the sketchiness of the Great Recession (Sept 15, 2008 the markets fell off a cliff and the paper came out two months later in November 2008) and fears of being tied to into a fiat nationalized currency.
I don't know if bitcoin/blockchain would have been as big a hit without coupling with the Great Recession, that at least gave bitcoin massive fuel. The Great Recession was 'good for bitcoin' as they say.
coupling with the Great Recession, that at least gave bitcoin massive fuel
Whatever fuel that contributed, it probably pales in comparison to the fuel contributed by Mark Karpeles' market manipulation at MtGox.
That's what really caught people's attention, and after that was when large scale VC money started to flow in, because the market manipulation and subsequent price spikes gave the impression that this was a growth market worthy of deploying capital into.
After the collapse of MtGox, and what was going on behind the scenes became apparent, you had lots of people with money invested under the false pretence of great interest and demand for this new thing.
So they had to decide were they going to take the loss, or pickup the torch from MtGox, and thus we got blockchain fever.
Whatever utility there is in blockchain crypto-currencies, the game to this point has been "Hey I'm gonna buy some of this stuff, then convince other people to do the same, because it is magic internet money! (please don't be too specific in your questions, or ask me to think if what I propose is actually workable)"
Part of Bitcoin/crypto success was due to the sketchiness of the Great Recession (Sept 15, 2008 the markets fell off a cliff and the paper came out two months later in November 2008) and fears of being tied to into a fiat nationalized currency.
I don't know if bitcoin/blockchain would have been as big a hit without coupling with the Great Recession, that at least gave bitcoin massive fuel. The Great Recession was 'good for bitcoin' as they say.