Wow, I'm really surprised how many people get it there! Is it maybe just few but loud noises (media outlets, VC companies) that give the impression of "blockchain without bitcoin" being the current hype? Or did sentiment change recently?
It's just because the subreddit has been bombarded with arguments debunking the misconception over the past few days. In thread after thread. The crowd there can be slow, but hit them hard enough in a short timespan and it starts to sink in.
It's been a good narrative for the media to crank up, this idea that "Bitcoin-the-blockchain" has merit, but "Bitcoin-the-currency" they are still unsure. Notice that this is a slow turnaround from the "Bitcoin-sucks-and-you-should-avoid-it-completely" narrative that they have been spewing for the last year, and this new narrative gives them a clean out from that negative view.
Notice too that they start timing this new narrative exactly when the Bitcoin market bottoms out, and is now on a slight uptrend.
So why would they do this? So that the media can begin mentioning Bitcoin a thousand times online, with a lukewarm but slightly positive spin. As bitcoin gains traction again, this narrative will get increasingly more positive. The internet has a historical component that the media manipulates, so that when they switch back to the narrative "Could Bitcoin the currency be the next big thing?" again, it will seem to those searching online that the media has been talking about the positives of bitcoin for a whole year. And the sheep will of course follow this blindly.
They do this with the stock market as well, to great effect.
