Over the past three weeks, a pro-Bitcoin group called the Nakamoto Project has been using a decidedly old-school form of outreach to promote the digital currency: A series of print ads in the Wall Street Journal. Photos of the ads have appeared prominently on social media—perhaps proving the campaign to be effective—but they have also given rise to a mystery: Who is picking up the tab for placing ads in a national newspaper whose circulation is estimated to be more than half a million copies?
The ads in question first appeared in late August and, according to the Nakamoto Project, will run weekly for 12 weeks. The ads, a sample of which you can see below, feature messages like “read the fine print on the world’s most argued-about asset.”