DARPA and the CIA were working on a "cryptographic currency" in the 1990s. James, should not every thinking person be gravely skeptical of the "Satochi" origin story? And also the various corrupt and venal agents used to spread the bitcoin prophesy into the mainstream? I know this is blasphemy to you and your followers......but what if bitcoin is a monumental psy-ops to pave the way for acceptance and adoption of the "cryptographic currency" - which then is imposed on us as the universal CBDC? You have to at least consider it.
Using the common narrative ( read crafted public story) of BTC, the ideas in this essay would be applicable in my opinion. However, understanding BTC was a DARPA type project ( no mainstream financial initiative is unaffiliated with existing power) and there are undoubtedly strings attached show this is not a viable option for this purpose. Of course this is the non common narrative and to a degree, already known to be true. DARPA didn't just "stop" the project, they went dark.
For quite some time I really did not understand how Bitcoin could possibly be part of a solution to theological problems. Then I reread Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges's The Ancient City, and I got a completely different perspective on the theological arc of the West, and one that makes sense of the turn back to bitcoin, viz.:
Ancient religion = extremely private and personal. Every household had its own gods, even its own secret liturgy. This was, per Coulanges, the very foundation of Western attachments to privacy of conscience, private property, marriage, etc.. There were individual cults and deities particular to every level of society from family to phratry to gens to city. The Zeus of Athens was not the Zeus of Corinth--not initially.
Christianity retained many of the modes, orders & celebrations of this private religion--including the multiplication saints. This is why we have Madonnas of multiple cities and such a massive proliferation of churches in medieval cities, far exceeding needs on the basis of population--every family wants its own cult of worship.
With protestantism, we have seen this multiplicity and privacy of religion collapse.
If Bitcoin plays a role in reviving religious practice, it may very well be by creating new modes of privacy and private liturgical languages of worship. If Bitcoin and encryption generally can fulfill the promise of ushuring in a new age of privacy and private building, then this may make it possible to re-create the private religion that, according to Coulanges, animated and constituted the generative power of every level of society in the ancient polis.
For the life of me I can’t figure out the theological argument for crypto. Currency for most of human history has been or has been rooted in something that occurs in the natural world, most notably gold. (Yes, I know the US dollar departed from the gold standard decades ago, but bear with me.) I see crypto as the conscious uncoupling of currency from God’s creation. Bitcoin and its ilk are built on human attention and human attention alone. Positive attention bumps its value to the moon. Negative attention or no attentional at all makes it worthless. In us, crypto lives and moves and has its being, and as such it is wildly unstable. And unstable currencies are not currencies people like to spend. I’ve heard enough smart people make the case for crypto that I’m open to being wrong here, but what in the world am I missing?
I think first you must distinguish bitcoin from crypto. They are similar but not the same. I’m no expert but it seems the protocols and algorithms that embody bitcoin would be infinitely more difficult to change than your run-of-the-mill crypto project.
On the theological-
I like the description of bitcoin as the tokenization of electricity. Where as gold was the tokenization of human labor. You could consider bitcoin being one step further.
God’s creation(gold in earth) -> labor -> gold as money
On the corruption aspect, gold has been corrupted by governments in the past. Either by melting previously coined gold, introducing other metals and recoining or by shaving the edges. Yet to be seen if BTC will be money, let alone corrupted. I say yet because it’s not widely exchanged amongst the public.
It’s a great question and one I’ve asked myself in the past.
I’m pondering what the through-line is from the mesmerizing Russian cathedral to bitcoin. Is it this: Christians must master a technology and “convert” it, catechize it? Moreover, they must not be afraid to do so, the flaws inherit not withstanding?
I see that cathedral and the Protestant in me revolts at the rank idolatry. I might say the same of bitcoin “mammon”. But you’re saying “take, Peter, kill and eat.” Have I understood you?
That may be part of the point. The idol worships false gods; that cathedral iconographically worships the true God, who took on flesh. Christian worships the true God through flesh and matter, having been sanctified for that use by the Incarnation. How to use Bitcoin to serve the true God rather than to serve the false gods?
DARPA and the CIA were working on a "cryptographic currency" in the 1990s. James, should not every thinking person be gravely skeptical of the "Satochi" origin story? And also the various corrupt and venal agents used to spread the bitcoin prophesy into the mainstream? I know this is blasphemy to you and your followers......but what if bitcoin is a monumental psy-ops to pave the way for acceptance and adoption of the "cryptographic currency" - which then is imposed on us as the universal CBDC? You have to at least consider it.
Using the common narrative ( read crafted public story) of BTC, the ideas in this essay would be applicable in my opinion. However, understanding BTC was a DARPA type project ( no mainstream financial initiative is unaffiliated with existing power) and there are undoubtedly strings attached show this is not a viable option for this purpose. Of course this is the non common narrative and to a degree, already known to be true. DARPA didn't just "stop" the project, they went dark.
For quite some time I really did not understand how Bitcoin could possibly be part of a solution to theological problems. Then I reread Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges's The Ancient City, and I got a completely different perspective on the theological arc of the West, and one that makes sense of the turn back to bitcoin, viz.:
Ancient religion = extremely private and personal. Every household had its own gods, even its own secret liturgy. This was, per Coulanges, the very foundation of Western attachments to privacy of conscience, private property, marriage, etc.. There were individual cults and deities particular to every level of society from family to phratry to gens to city. The Zeus of Athens was not the Zeus of Corinth--not initially.
Christianity retained many of the modes, orders & celebrations of this private religion--including the multiplication saints. This is why we have Madonnas of multiple cities and such a massive proliferation of churches in medieval cities, far exceeding needs on the basis of population--every family wants its own cult of worship.
With protestantism, we have seen this multiplicity and privacy of religion collapse.
If Bitcoin plays a role in reviving religious practice, it may very well be by creating new modes of privacy and private liturgical languages of worship. If Bitcoin and encryption generally can fulfill the promise of ushuring in a new age of privacy and private building, then this may make it possible to re-create the private religion that, according to Coulanges, animated and constituted the generative power of every level of society in the ancient polis.
For the life of me I can’t figure out the theological argument for crypto. Currency for most of human history has been or has been rooted in something that occurs in the natural world, most notably gold. (Yes, I know the US dollar departed from the gold standard decades ago, but bear with me.) I see crypto as the conscious uncoupling of currency from God’s creation. Bitcoin and its ilk are built on human attention and human attention alone. Positive attention bumps its value to the moon. Negative attention or no attentional at all makes it worthless. In us, crypto lives and moves and has its being, and as such it is wildly unstable. And unstable currencies are not currencies people like to spend. I’ve heard enough smart people make the case for crypto that I’m open to being wrong here, but what in the world am I missing?
I think first you must distinguish bitcoin from crypto. They are similar but not the same. I’m no expert but it seems the protocols and algorithms that embody bitcoin would be infinitely more difficult to change than your run-of-the-mill crypto project.
On the theological-
I like the description of bitcoin as the tokenization of electricity. Where as gold was the tokenization of human labor. You could consider bitcoin being one step further.
God’s creation(gold in earth) -> labor -> gold as money
God’s creation(oil, nat gas, coal)-> labor -> electricity -> bitcoin
On the corruption aspect, gold has been corrupted by governments in the past. Either by melting previously coined gold, introducing other metals and recoining or by shaving the edges. Yet to be seen if BTC will be money, let alone corrupted. I say yet because it’s not widely exchanged amongst the public.
It’s a great question and one I’ve asked myself in the past.
The cathedral is beautiful. The Russian soul is Christian.
I’m pondering what the through-line is from the mesmerizing Russian cathedral to bitcoin. Is it this: Christians must master a technology and “convert” it, catechize it? Moreover, they must not be afraid to do so, the flaws inherit not withstanding?
I see that cathedral and the Protestant in me revolts at the rank idolatry. I might say the same of bitcoin “mammon”. But you’re saying “take, Peter, kill and eat.” Have I understood you?
That may be part of the point. The idol worships false gods; that cathedral iconographically worships the true God, who took on flesh. Christian worships the true God through flesh and matter, having been sanctified for that use by the Incarnation. How to use Bitcoin to serve the true God rather than to serve the false gods?
Use it, yes; but how?