Opinion: Marketwatch Columnist Bret Arends is a Shill

His "opinion" goes something like this... "Stay away from bitcoin — it’s complete garbage." Taken from his Bitcoin hit piece which is linked below.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/stay-away-from-bitcoin-its-complete-garbage-2017-06-15

I felt dumber after having read this completely biased article which had no regards to facts or research. We'll just take some quick quotes and respond here.

"What are its real-life uses? Online gambling and money laundering."

Venezuelans are using Bitcoin as a viable alternative to their hyper inflated currency. Are they gambling and money laundering? No, they're buying Amazon gift cards. I'm sure there's better examples but that was overlooked. Here's another example.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/ethereum-blockchain-used-by-united-nations-for-sending-aid-to-syria

"Are they really protections against the ravages of “inflation” and “monetary debasement” imposed by wicked governments?"

Yes.

"...how come people who keep their money in bitcoin and ethereum and the like have experienced Weimar Republic levels of consumer-price inflation just this week?

The simple answer? They haven't. That was one week of data. The US Dollar has lost 96 percent of it's purchasing power since 1913. You can take that to the bank, after taxes and fees of course...

"Online currencies are hardly a “store of value” when they have fallen about 30% in a week."

Bitcoin lost 30 percent in one week but even with that drop it was still up 50 percent for the year. Anyone who had been using Bitcoin as an actual store of wealth were probably not jumping out of high rise windows.

"You notice, incidentally, that these bitcoiners continue to measure the market price of their beloved new currencies in terms of, er, old-fashioned U.S. dollars."

Our mistake. There must have some other measure of value here in the United States that we just weren't savvy enough to be aware of. Please continue... Maybe you can recommend the safe haven of bonds as the fed begins to unwind their 4.5 trillion dollar balance sheet.

Should you stumble upon this article Bret, here's a beginner's guide to Ethereum.

https://blockgeeks.com/guides/what-is-ethereum/

I would love to hear other peoples thoughts on this. Thanks.