> So you think understanding bitcoin applications is obvious as breathing oxygen? Sounds to me like you're making baseless assumptions.

Great case of the pot calling the kettle black there...

No, I do not think that understanding bitcoin applications is as obvious as breathing oxygen. The point is that just because someone didn't write about something in one particular article doesn't mean it isn't there.

> It was just a page full of backhanded jabs and insults towards bitcoin with zero reasoning to support it.

A common problem described in that essay, which is not a jab or insult towards Bitcoin, though definitely has the Bitcoin community in its crosshairs, is that the community seemed to take his very real experience with tip4commit as criticism of Bitcoin; your comments are doing a wonderful job of demonstrating the problem.

Let's go over the "backhanded insults":

* he personally believes that it is a terrible currency [OMG! How insulting that someone has a negative personal belief!]

* bitcoin is unregulated [how is this a disputed fact? how is this an insult?]

* if you move large sums of bitcoin going in and out of your account you won't be questioned by authorities [again, I can't see the issue here]

* For him, Bitcoin's costs and predictability as a means of transferring currency across borders is worse than using transferwise, and even more so when within SEPA. [pretty rooted in fact, no?]

The one thing he didn't back was his opinion of it as a currency, and the way he presented it, it was quite clear it wasn't presented as an argument and he wasn't trying to change anyone's mind with that statement.

In general, I'd say his essay did a great job of expressing the reasoning behind his actual concerns on this matter.

> How is making statements like "bitcoin is a terrible currency" without including any actual reasoning anything but pure ignorance?

If he were conducting a debate about the value of bitcoin as a currency, you could make a case that it was pure ignorance. Given that he was expressly trying to avoid that debate, your assertion is ridiculous. He was merely acknowledging his opinion without trying to defend it or make an argument for it.

Sometimes you are writing a piece about one topic, but people insist on calling you out on another. You acknowledge your opinion about that topic, but you don't want to get in to the details about it because it isn't relevant to what you are speaking to, so you don't make any effort at all to make a case for the opinion, you don't make any effort to defend it, and you certainly don't try to persuade anyone to agree with you. (In this case he even qualified it by mentioning some other ways he sees value in the technology.)

By example...

You've made a number of assertions about all the ways bitcoin is awesome. You also made assertions about Mr. Ronacher's knowledge of it, and yet you haven't presented any actual reasoning on any of those points. Where are the paragraphs of supporting material on each of the ways Bitcoin is awesome? You haven't presented Mr. Ronacher's education and browsing history to support claims of his ignorance, or even detailed the "jabs and insults" from the essay!

Should we conclude from this that you are contributing nothing but pure ignorance to the discussion?

At least to me, that kind of argument seems completely ridiculous.