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The article compares Cryptocurrency to Religion, roughly speaking. First, there was financial chaos in 2008. Then with a bang, our Lord Satoshi Nakamoto solved

by hudon 8y ago

The article compares Cryptocurrency to Religion, roughly speaking. First, there was financial chaos in 2008. Then with a bang, our Lord Satoshi Nakamoto solved the double-spend problem and created Blockchain, and He saw that it was good. Second, you have your prophets: Vitalik who is an "alien sent to help us all" and Joe Lubin who has "seen the light". These are men that have been revealed something about Blockchain that no one else understands, thus them being a "9 out of 10" in terms of how much they understand the Blockchain. You can never truly be a "10 out of 10" because that spot is reserved for our Lord, Satoshi Nakamoto. But Vitalik is a Higher prophet than Joe because of his closer connection to Satoshi, having been so involved with Bitcoin so early. Then you have your priests, there to aid the prophets: Vlad Zamfir, performing the ritual of computational wizardry in the corner of the room as the common folk surround him and praise Satoshi. Emin Gun Sirer interpreting the Holy Whitepaper out loud and vulgarizing its content for the masses. Then you have the Temple: Twitter. Great truths such as "ok can you guys stop trading" are recorded in the Gospels (IRC archives), and propagated and interpreted throughout the Twitter Temple by the priests. Fourthly, you have your warriors, guarding the Temple: Jimmy Song with a cowboy hat, planting his foot on the ground, pointing at the heretics entering the Twitter Temple and charging with religious fervor: "Shitcoin! Scam! Get out of the temple!". All the while, the Blockchain glows mysteriously as our coal plants feed it more and more energy. Perhaps when the Messiah comes, we'll learn that Blockchain was a parody of Humanity all along...

bouncycastle 8y ago
I think most national currencies are based on religious-like beliefs and mass delusions to some extent. Take the USD for instance. With "in God we trust", and you have your great leaders and "prophets" i.e. founding fathers such as George Washington and Benjamin Franklin printed on the back, governed by a government that is bound to the "commandments" i.e. the Constitution... All the while, the Whitehouse mysteriously glows as the nation's printing press is busy churning out a few more batches of fiat in secret.
- Scoundreller 8y ago
  But very few people are holding onto USD bills with the expectation that they'll go up in value, or suddenly have some new use.
  - IAmGraydon 8y ago
    The foreign exchange market is the largest market on earth, and quite a lot of it is speculative, actually.
- hudon 8y ago
  Yes but that’s not really news. I think the article’s elucidation is that Cryptocurrency, like money, is comprised of humans and thus has all the same baggage (as opposed to being a non-human solution that avoids issues of trust or governance).
- wallacoloo 8y ago
  For USD, I think the commandments would be the invariants of the monetary policy, as opposed to the entire constitution: "inflation shall average 2%", "grow the money supply to prevent deflation", and "shrink the money supply to reduce inflation". The religious part is made apparent by it being so difficult to explain why 2008 didn't lead to significant inflation - whereas inflation appears a direct result if the reasoning of these policies is accurate - yet we still follow the policy and just pray it will carry us through anyway.
- perl4ever 8y ago
  "In God We Trust" has only been the nation's motto since 1956 and appeared on paper money the following year[1]. The dollar is of course much older. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_God_We_Trust https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_God_We_Trust
  - Fnoord 8y ago
    Once you substitute god with good and devil with evil everything related to god and devil becomes a comical narrative.
fizwhiz 8y ago
upvoted for the vivid imagery.
aasasd 8y ago
Thanks for the summary. I don't know how accurate it is, of course—but I'll accept it, as five minutes into the article I still had no idea what it's about other than “cryptocurrencies.”

by hudon 8y ago

bouncycastle 8y ago

I think most national currencies are based on religious-like beliefs and mass delusions to some extent. Take the USD for instance. With "in God we trust", and you have your great leaders and "prophets" i.e. founding fathers such as George Washington and Benjamin Franklin printed on the back, governed by a government that is bound to the "commandments" i.e. the Constitution... All the while, the Whitehouse mysteriously glows as the nation's printing press is busy churning out a few more batches of fiat in secret.

Scoundreller 8y ago
But very few people are holding onto USD bills with the expectation that they'll go up in value, or suddenly have some new use.
- IAmGraydon 8y ago
  The foreign exchange market is the largest market on earth, and quite a lot of it is speculative, actually.
hudon 8y ago
Yes but that’s not really news. I think the article’s elucidation is that Cryptocurrency, like money, is comprised of humans and thus has all the same baggage (as opposed to being a non-human solution that avoids issues of trust or governance).
wallacoloo 8y ago
For USD, I think the commandments would be the invariants of the monetary policy, as opposed to the entire constitution: "inflation shall average 2%", "grow the money supply to prevent deflation", and "shrink the money supply to reduce inflation". The religious part is made apparent by it being so difficult to explain why 2008 didn't lead to significant inflation - whereas inflation appears a direct result if the reasoning of these policies is accurate - yet we still follow the policy and just pray it will carry us through anyway.
perl4ever 8y ago
"In God We Trust" has only been the nation's motto since 1956 and appeared on paper money the following year[1]. The dollar is of course much older. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_God_We_Trust https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_God_We_Trust
- Fnoord 8y ago
  Once you substitute god with good and devil with evil everything related to god and devil becomes a comical narrative.

fizwhiz 8y ago

upvoted for the vivid imagery.

aasasd 8y ago

Thanks for the summary. I don't know how accurate it is, of course—but I'll accept it, as five minutes into the article I still had no idea what it's about other than “cryptocurrencies.”