1/ People seem to increasingly be comparing Bitcoin to religion. A rundown of the framework:
2/ Prophet: Satoshi. He is no longer here and thus impossible to question, making him plausibly infallible.
3/ Beliefs: decentralization.
4/ Rituals: running nodes, mining.
5/ Sacred objects: bitcoin, genesis block.
6/ Holy text: the Bitcoin whitepaper. Like any holy text, people interpret it through their individual lens.
7/ Sects: Different interpretations cause splintering into sects: big blockers, small blockers, maximalists, etc.
8/ Flourishing after the prophet’s death: Satoshi not being around allows for multiple interpretations to grow without a judge to say which are right or wrong. As a result, the religion can take many different paths, increasing resilience.
9/ The white paper has the same properties that make a good fortune teller effective and a hit pop song viral: enough outline to convey a powerful idea, but vague enough details to allow the mind to fill in the rest of the canvas.
10/ It is optimally specifically general.
11/ The Chainsmokers’ pop hit “Closer” is another example of specifically general. Specific powerful emotional subjects to draw you in, general enough that everyone can relate: a first romance, being in the backseat of the car with a young love, the desire to be forever young.
12/ This is nothing new. Most companies can be seen through similar frameworks with their founders, company values, meetings, founding story as a creation myth, etc.
13/ This formula has proven powerful, and these patters are just repeating themselves in a new form: cryptocurrency.
14/ Favorite manifestation of Bitcoin as religion: a friend named his wifi network "Math Prophecy"
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