AND IN THE END YOU'RE LEFT WITH A MESS OF POTTAGE:

Bitcoin was developed by a mystical figure, with no known corporeal presence, called Satoshi Nakamoto. His true name is unknown. At some point, Nakamoto stopped posting online altogether, departing the earthly plane. He's never once sold a coin, either, creating this thing of massive value with no clear indication of having cashed in. A selfless figure.

Nakamoto's writings are sacred texts. There's the Bitcoin white paper and his early message board postings at Bitcointalk.com, where he corresponded with fellow cypherpunks interested in creating digital money. Those early correspondees are the Bitcoin saints. One is Hal Finney, the first known recipient of a Bitcoin transaction.

Finney died in 2014, but one day he might come back to life. He was cryogenically frozen at a facility in Scottsdale, Ariz., in the hopes of someday waking up to a rejuvenated body. All religions have metaphysics and implicit promises of eternal life. As Finn Brunton lays out in his book Digital Cash: The Unknown History of the Anarchists, Utopians, and Technologists Who Created Cryptocurrency, the prehistory of Bitcoin had a high overlap with the Extropian movement, which believed in eternal life through technology.

Bitcoin's worldview has other religious features. There are devils (bankers and central bankers), implicit promises of riches for the true believers who HODL (hold without selling), and damnation for the no-coiners who reject the way ("Have fun staying poor" is a popular Bitcoin incantation).

There's a Bitcoin diet (carnivory). There are holidays, such as Bitcoin Pizza Day, and the Halving, which occurs every four years, when the pace of new Bitcoin issuance is cut in half. And there are sects and schisms. In 2017 a group that had a different vision for scaling Bitcoin forked off Bitcoin Cash. Then within that community, another group forked off and created Bitcoin SV (for Satoshi's Vision).

Tweet   @brothersjudd