From the comments section the author writes: "You are correct in that it’s technically another set of application layer protocols – I was just being provocativ

From the comments section the author writes: "You are correct in that it’s technically another set of application layer protocols – I was just being provocative with the title..." sigh... so it is not a "fifth column" yes, the bitcoin protocol did provide some interesting things but is not nearly approaching the level of hype and spilled pixels lauding it