2019 AP Stylebook Provides Guidelines for Writing Blockchain-Related Terms

Major New York news outlet, the Associated Press (AP) has announced that its latest version of The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law has a new section on cryptocurrencies in an official Twitter post on May 29.

According to the new AP style guidelines, which constitute a popular standard for professional publications, writers should capitalize the names of cryptocurrencies when referring to them as a system but should keep the first letter lowercase when referring to token payments. They provided the following two sentences as examples:

“The government wants to regulate Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. He bought a vacuum cleaner online using bitcoins.”

This example in the Twitter post is pulled from the 2019 AP Stylebook’s entry on cryptocurrency. One of the other recommendations from its cryptocurrency entry is to avoid referring to cryptocurrency as “crypto” in order to circumvent ambiguity or confusion with the term “cryptography.”

In addition to cryptocurrency, the 2019 AP Stylebook — which was also announced for sale via Twitter on May 29 — additionally has entries on blockchain and Bitcoin, which provide definitions for the terms and explains how they are related.

Last year, the Associated Press partnered with journalism platform Civil to protect AP content using blockchain technology.