To expand on the article’s initial argument, it seems like to understand what Bitcoin really is, you need to understand the Bitcoin financial system - that is, what spending Bitcoin gives you access to. Understanding the cryptography, the code, or how mining works is not enough, because that doesn’t tell you what you can do with Bitcoin.

I’m hardly an expert but it seems fair to say that Bitcoin’s financial system is considerably smaller and probably more fragile than, say, the US dollar’s financial system, though there’s still some activity.