Discussion: Bitcoin from a Christian perspective (Crypto Currency Part 2)
Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to successfully record transactions on a secure, decentralized blockchain-based network. Launched in early 2009 by its pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency measured by market capitalization and amount of data stored on its blockchain. The Bitcoin software is free and available online to anyone who wants to run a Bitcoin node and store their own copy of the Bitcoin blockchain. As Bitcoin matures, engineers have designed additional protocols to improve the speed and privacy of Bitcoin transactions, including the Omni Layer, Lightning Network and Liquid Network. Only approximately 21 million bitcoins will ever be created. New coins are minted every 10 minutes by bitcoin miners who help to maintain the network by adding new transaction data to the blockchain.
Coindesk.com description of Bitcoin
Last September, we explored the subject of Crypto currencies, decentralized finance (DeFi) and blockchain technology for applicability to financing the works of God here on the earth, including an alternative currency. The biggest Crypto by far is Bitcoin. So we are going to do a bit of a deeper dive into it in this discussion… This post / podcast is worth reading / listening to by means of review: https://newbreed.co/2020/09/01/crypto-currency/
Sept 2020 1 Bitcoin (last time we talked) $11,500
April 2021 1 Bitcoin (as of this email) $55,043
What has happened since:
- 10/8/20 Square / Jack Dorsey $50m purchase of Bitcoin
- 10/21/20 PayPal clients can purchase Bitcoin; Venmo 2021
- 12/16/20 MassMutual insurance buys $100m Bitcoin
- 12/20/20 Square Cash announces “Bitcoin back”
- 1/31/21 Twitter / Dorsey brands “#bitcoin” with bitcoin emoji
- 2/2/21 CALPERs increases Bitcoin miner RIOT stake to $441m
- 2/4/21 “Dogecoin is the people’s crypto.” Elon Musk tweet
- 2/8/21 Tesla $1.5Bn purchase of Bitcoin; Bitcoin as payment
- 2/18/21 Robinhood announces clients Bitcoin buy and sell
- 2/23/21 Square / Dorsey $170m purchase of Bitcoin
- 3/30/21 PayPal clients can settle transactions in Bitcoin
- 3/17/21 Morgan Stanley high net-worth clients can buy Bitcoin
- 4/14/21 Coinbase goes public at $250/s – closes $338
Few other interesting tidbits:
A friend forwarded me this Tweet:
Bitcoin is an exit from the Fed.
DeFi is an exit from Wall Street.
Social media is an exit from mass media.Homeschooling is an exit from industrial education.
Remote work is an exit from 9-5.
Creator economy is an exit from employment.Individuals are leaving institutions.
@Naval Tweet on 1/2/21
A nice quip, but is it true??
- Example: Bitcoin is traded through exchanges and held in wallets that are regulated
- Example: Virtually all USD lending is done through the Fed
- Example: 75% of US GDP and 50%+ of all jobs come from the Fortune 500…big institutions getting bigger
700 Club video just published yesterday on Bitcoin, which was pretty good: https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2021/april/understanding-the-bitcoin-revolution-and-why-its-likely-to-change-the-world
Bear Case for Bitcoin:
NYU Economist Roubini believes Bitcoin is a self-fulfilling bubble as transaction costs are too high as a means of payment : https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2021-02-17/bitcoin-is-a-self-fulfilling-bubble-roubini-warns-video
Bull Case for Bitcoin:
ARK Investing Founder Cathie Wood (a professing Christian) believes the ability of crypto and bitcoin and other advanced technology cos to change and advance the economy of the world (such as Tesla and Space X) are so great, we have an order of magnitude of future investment appreciation https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2021-03-08/cathie-wood-on-market-broadening-out-tesla-retail-investors-video
Satoshi Nakamoto
What is needed is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof instead of trust,
2008 Bitcoin white paper p1
allowing any two willing parties to transact directly with each other without the need for a trusted
third party.
Is God is looking to replace trust in Him and people with cryptographic machine trust?
The word “Crypto” comes from the Greek word kruptós, meaning ‘hidden’, ‘secret’ or ‘in the dark’.
Another friend asked me the other day what I thought of the decentralized nature of Crypto as it relates to creating an alternative Christian banking system, and this was my response :
Crypto, block chain, and DeFi are all good/interesting technology and ideas. Bitcoin, etc. not so great given price mania of its implementation. Bitcoin and most crypto-currencies also try to replace human trust with machine trust (which isn’t biblical). So, if you combine the tech with human relationships, bypass the legacy financial systems and the Fed while using removable bridges, back it with physical tangible value, you have what we are prototyping in the New Breed of Business.
newbreed.co 