I met no bears within the predominantly male crowd. Instead, I found confidence and joy in Bitcoin.

Confidence and joy in Bitcoin sounds nice. And the author sort of understands that things have value because people are willing to trade for them:

This fluctuation is due in part to Bitcoin having no intrinsic value: Like gold, it is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it.

But unfortunately he relies on Zeke Faux (at least it wasn't Ben McKenzie). I have not found Faux's reporting on Bitcoin to be very good: he gets so many of the details right, but misses the bigger picture.

“Though people give a lot of reasons for why they like Bitcoin and you can get caught up in the genuinely interesting stuff of how it works,” Faux said, “I think interest in Bitcoin boils down to a desire to get rich.”

I'm also a little confused why Slate is publishing this article now. Seems like it would have gotten a lot more attention if they had published it shortly after the conference. Maybe because the price is in the news again?