@weiks I think most people still don't have the slightest idea about what cryptocurrencies and blockchain, so education is certainly one issue. People don't feel comfortable using technology they don't understand or know how to use. Then there's the UX design problem: many people I've spoken to just give up before going through the instructions.

@soonaorlater My goal as a journalist and as an editor is to cover the stories that will have the biggest impact to our audience. That being said, I don't mind covering a story just because it's fun every once in a while.

@bentossell @Mixtatiq I think at this point it makes much sense as a publisher to separate the websites since they will end up serving different audiences. Most of the crypto content right now isn't mainstream and even though it is still important, it is meant for people who are already into blockchain and crypto. Some news in terms of mainstream relevance will propagate to the main website and therefore both create awareness with the mainstream audience and increase traffic to the new website.
Basically, it is the right move both editorially, and financially by helping the publisher to better monetize a new and more focused audience (who is also much more lucrative at the moment.

@bentossell I think we summed up our thinking process pretty well in the announcement posts our editor-in-chief Alejandro and I wrote:

https://thenextweb.com/launch/2018/03/29/tnw-is-launching-hard-fork-a-blog-all-about-blockchain-and-cryptocurrency/
https://thenextweb.com/hardfork/2018/03/29/introducing-hard-fork-new-cryptocurrency-blockchain-blog-tnw

The short answer is because we believe there are stories in this space that our readers need to know about – and we're only getting started.

@bentossell Applications beyond currencies. There are many concepts out there and some with working products, but I can hardly think of any I'm not at least slightly skeptical of.

@weiks Regulation and scaling solutions.

@weiks I've got a soft spot for ETHNews and Trust Nodes – their reporting is solid.

Reddit: Hmm, it'll have to be r/Buttcoin, haha.

Twitter: Yuji Nakamura @ynakamura56 from Bloomberg, Bitcoin dev Peter Todd @peterktodd, Amy Castor @ahcastor whose work appears Bitcoin Magazine, Kyle Torpey @kyletorpey who also has his own podcast, Matthew [email protected]_d_green who teaches cryptography at John Hopkins. I think i'll stop here.

@weiks @Mixtatiq Vitalik loves r/buttcoin too! https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/981096767713263616

@bentossell It's more or less like everybody else: I've always had a couple of these friends that wouldn't stop talking about Bitcoin since at least 2013. I got into it seriously around last September – and it's been more or less a full-time job and a weekend hobby since then.

@bentossell I think that it's important to ignore what everyone is telling you, until you're capable of weighing out the validity of their arguments. I personally went back to the basics: I read the Satoshi Nakamoto white paper, Vitalik's first drafts of the Ethereum Project; those are dense reads, but they really gave me a foundation. But really, it's all about learning how to do your own research and being comfortable with not readily understanding everything you read. Just take your time and you'll gradually start getting a grip on it.

@bentossell I'm not sure how controversial of a viewpoint it is, but I'm awfully skeptical of a number of recently announced partnerships between crypto/blockchain companies and major corporates.

@bentossell It's way easier to learn how to navigate through the terminology and the technicalities than I expected.