Headline suggests present day, content only talks about the past. Basically fake news. "How 'Trustless' Was Bitcoin, Really?" would have been more accurate.
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I agree. Also, at one point the author uses the phrase "these cryptocurrencies" as if they are all the same. I don't know if that's intentional or just ignorance.
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Paywalled...
But to answer the question, Bitcoin is trust-minimized.
When you run a node you must trust the source that gives you your initial list of peers. When you have a wallet that isn't connected to your own node, you must trust the node your wallet is connected to. You must also trust that the blocks you initially download for the first time is indeed the correct history of transactions. The more blocks you verify however, the more certain you become that this is the correct history due to the amount of energy needed to create a valid history of blocks.
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Does anyone have a non-paywalled source? I'll be damned if I am going to give the New York Times a dime, but I'll tip you guys sats.