<\/p>\n
Read enough about Bitcoin, and you\u2019ll inevitably come across people who refer to the cryptocurrency as a religion. Bloomberg\u2019s<\/em> Lorcan Roche Kelly<\/a> called Bitcoin \u201cthe first true religion of the 21st century.\u201d Bitcoin promoter Hass McCook<\/a> has taken to calling himself \u201cThe Friar\u201d and wrote a series of Medium pieces comparing Bitcoin to a religion. There is a Church of Bitcoin<\/a>, founded in 2017, that explicitly calls legendary Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto its \u201cprophet.\u201d<\/p>\n In Austin, Texas, there are billboards<\/a> with slogans like \u201cCrypto Is Real\u201d that weirdly mirror the ubiquitous billboards about Jesus<\/a> found on Texas highways. Like many religions, Bitcoin even has dietary restrictions<\/a> associated with it.<\/p>\n So does Bitcoin\u2019s having prophets, evangelists, and dietary laws make it a religion or not? As a scholar of religion<\/a>, I think this is the wrong question to ask. The dirty secret of religious studies is that there is no universal definition of what religion is. Traditions like Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism certainly exist and have similarities, but the idea that these are all examples of religion is relatively new.<\/p>\n The word \u201creligion\u201d<\/a> as it\u2019s used today \u2014 a vague category that includes certain cultural ideas and practices related to God, the afterlife, or morality \u2014 arose in Europe around the 16th century. Before this, many Europeans understood that there were only three types of people in the world: Christians, Jews, and heathens.<\/p>\n This model shifted after the Protestant Reformation when a long series of wars<\/a> began between Catholics and Protestants. These became known as \u201cwars of religion,\u201d and religion became a way of talking about differences between Christians. At the same time, Europeans were encountering other cultures through exploration and colonialism. Some of the traditions they encountered shared certain similarities to Christianity and were also deemed religions.<\/p>\n Non-European languages have historically not had a direct equivalent for the word \u201creligion.\u201d What has counted as religion has changed over the centuries, and there are always political interests at stake in determining whether or not something is deemed a religion. As religion scholar Russell McCutcheon<\/a> argues, \u201cThe interesting thing to study, then, is not what religion is or is not, but \u2018the making of it\u2019 process itself \u2014 whether that manufacturing activity takes place in a courtroom or is a claim made by a group about their own behaviors and institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n With this in mind, why would anyone claim that Bitcoin is a religion? Some commentators seem to be making this claim to steer investors away from Bitcoin. Emerging Market Fund Manager Mark Mobius<\/a>, in an attempt to clamp down on enthusiasm about cryptocurrency, said that \u201ccrypto is a religion, not an investment.\u201d His statement, however, is an example of a false dichotomy fallacy<\/a>, or the assumption that if something is one thing, it cannot be another. There is no reason that a religion cannot also be an investment, a political system, or nearly anything else.<\/p>\n Mobius\u2019 point, though, is that \u201creligion,\u201d like cryptocurrency, is irrational. This criticism of religion has been around since the Enlightenment, when Voltaire wrote<\/a>: \u201cNothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.\u201d In this case, labeling Bitcoin a \u201creligion\u201d suggests that bitcoin investors are fanatics and not making rational choices.<\/p>\n On the other hand, some Bitcoin proponents have leaned into the religion label. McCook\u2019s articles use the language of religion to highlight certain aspects of Bitcoin culture and to normalize them. For example, \u201cstacking sats<\/a>\u201d \u2014 the practice of regularly buying small fractions of bitcoins \u2014 sounds weird. But McCook refers to this practice as a religious ritual, and more specifically as \u201ctithing<\/a>.\u201d Many churches practice tithing, in which members make regular donations to support their church. So this comparison makes sat stacking seem more familiar.<\/p>\n While for some people religion may be associated with the irrational, it is also associated with what religion scholar Doug Cowan<\/a> calls \u201cthe good, moral and decent fallacy.\u201d That is, some people often assume if something is really a religion, it must represent something good. People who \u201cstack sats\u201d might sound weird. But people who \u201ctithe\u201d could sound principled and wholesome.<\/p>\n For religion scholars, categorizing something as a religion can pave the way for new insights. As religion scholar J.Z. Smith writes<\/a>, \u201c\u2018Religion\u2019 is not a native term; it is created by scholars for their intellectual purposes and therefore is theirs to define.\u201d For Smith, categorizing certain traditions or cultural institutions as religions creates a comparative framework that will hopefully result in some new understanding. With this in mind, comparing Bitcoin to a tradition like Christianity may cause people to notice things that they didn\u2019t before.<\/p>\n For example, many religions were founded by charismatic leaders<\/a>. Charismatic authority does not come from any government office or tradition but solely from the relationship between a leader and their followers. Charismatic leaders are seen by their followers as superhuman or at least extraordinary. Because this relationship is precarious, leaders often remain aloof to keep followers from seeing them as ordinary human beings.<\/p>\n Several commentators have noted that Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto resembles a sort of prophet. Nakamoto\u2019s true identity \u2013 or whether Nakamoto is actually a team of people \u2014 remains a mystery<\/a>. But the intrigue surrounding this figure is a source of charisma with consequences for bitcoin\u2019s economic value. Many who invest in bitcoin do so in part because they regard Nakamoto as a genius and an economic rebel. In Budapest, artists even erected a bronze statue<\/a> as a tribute to Nakamoto. There\u2019s also a connection between Bitcoin and millennialism<\/a>, or the belief in a coming collective salvation for a select group of people.<\/p>\n In Christianity, millennial expectations involve the return of Jesus and the final judgment of the living and the dead. Some Bitcoiners believe in an inevitable coming \u201chyperbitcoinization<\/a>\u201d in which bitcoin will be the only valid currency. When this happens, the \u201cBitcoin believers\u201d who invested will be justified, while the \u201cno coiners\u201d who shunned cryptocurrency will lose everything.<\/p>\n Finally, some Bitcoiners view bitcoin as not just a way to make money, but as the answer to all of humanity\u2019s problems. \u201cBecause the root cause of all of our problems is basically money printing and capital misallocation as a result of that,\u201d McCook argues<\/a>, \u201cthe only way the whales are going to be saved, or the trees are going to be saved, or the kids are going to be saved, is if we just stop the degeneracy.\u201d<\/p>\n This attitude may be the most significant point of comparison with religious traditions. In his book \u201cGod Is Not One<\/a>,\u201d Religion Professor Stephen Prothero<\/a> highlights the distinctiveness of world religions using a four-point model, in which each tradition identifies a unique problem with the human condition, posits a solution, offers specific practices to achieve the solution and puts forth exemplars to model that path.<\/p>\n This model can be applied to Bitcoin: The problem is fiat currency, the solution is Bitcoin, and the practices include encouraging others to invest, \u201cstacking sats\u201d and \u201chodling<\/a>\u201d \u2014 refusing to sell bitcoin to keep its value up. The exemplars include Satoshi and other figures involved in the creation of blockchain technology. So does this comparison prove that Bitcoin is a religion?<\/p>\n Not necessarily, because theologians, sociologists, and legal theorists have many different definitions of religion<\/a>, all of which are more or less useful depending on what the definition is being used for. However, this comparison may help people understand why Bitcoin has become so attractive to so many people, in ways that would not be possible if Bitcoin were approached as a purely economic phenomenon.<\/p>\n This article is republished from <\/em>The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>, by Joseph P. Laycock<\/a>, assistant professor of religious studies at Texas State University<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nReligion\u2019s dirty secret<\/h2>\n
Critics highlight irrationality<\/h2>\n
Bitcoin as good and wholesome<\/h2>\n
Using religion as a framework<\/h2>\n
A path to salvation<\/h2>\n