How “true bitcoiners” work on reddit to maintain bitcoin

Abstract

After the meteoric rise in price, and subsequent public interest, of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, a developing body of work has begun examining its impact on society. In recent months, as Bitcoin's price has rapidly declined, uncertainty and distrust have begun to overshadow early enthusiasm. In this late-breaking work, we investigated one of the largest and most important Bitcoin online communities, the r/Bitcoin Reddit forum. A vocal subgroup of users identify themselves as "true Bitcoiners", and justify their continued devotion to Bitcoin. These subreddit participants explained and justified their trust in Bitcoin in three primary ways: identifying characteristics of beneficial versus harmful Bitcoin users, diminishing the importance of problems, and describing themselves as loyal to Bitcoin over time.