Martin Luther Reformation Bitcoin Success – Bitcoin Magazine
This is an opinion editorial by Erik Dale, host of the “Bitcoin For Breakfast” podcast.
While we are far from harmless, Bitcoiners are arguably some of the most peaceful people on earth. Initiating violence is antithetical to Bitcoin both as a store of value and a store of value. And the network does an excellent job of defending itself through its decentralization. No army needed.
And I certainly don’t want any confusion with “XRP Army” or the like.
Still, with fiat nukes aimed at London, Moscow and Berlin, our fiat overlords enriching themselves faster than late medieval popes and our fiat future promising a level of censorship and surveillance never dreamed of by the Gestapo, stacking rate can be considered our only resistance.
Decentralized resistance
Of course, the fastest way to grow a modern army is to be invaded by Russia, but I want to share some lessons from one of the most successful examples of decentralized resistance the world has ever seen.
A movement born in the wake of a disruptive communication technology that allowed information to be copied and spread at an unimaginable speed.
An innovation created to overcome the corruption and inefficiency of institutions that had outlived their usefulness.
An idea that survived all assaults, from brutal internal persecution to decades of continental war.
I’m not talking about Bitcoin.
I want to share seven lessons we can learn from late medieval Bitcoiners who went through a similar reformation:
- It’s the end of the world.
- Copy everything.
- Make it local for the plebs.
- OPSEC matters.
- Create your own ecosystem.
- Open source it.
- Die on this hill.
Armageddon
Late 15th century Europe was a strange, Matrix-like experience.
Imagine being Neo, walking through the streets of Amsterdam in, say, 1492 (to make it relatable to our friends from across the Atlantic). What do you see?
It is a world where almost every aspect of life is dominated by a single set of institutions that are involved in every important life transition, provide virtually all welfare and education, and even decide what is heretical misinformation and who is qualified to access the truth.
Understand?
For most people around us, the world we are ending is the only one they have ever known. Perhaps even more so in a world as old as Europe. Many of them will fight us to keep it going. You can safely say that you can’t just go around disconnecting people from the Matrix on purpose.
Start by talking to the people most likely to listen in the present and least likely to hurt you in the future: your family and friends.
Copy everything, everywhere
Being a censor in 1492 must have been a terrible experience.
Since Johannes Gutenberg became the first person to figure out how to connect his printer to Wi-Fi, things have gotten very out of hand. By 1492, most major European countries were full of hipster printers, at least 25 of them in the Netherlands alone.
Although the consequences of this were not immediately apparent – like the internet in the 90s – it initially enabled a prototype of an immutable public ledger by radically increasing the cost of manipulating or suppressing information.
What used to be done with a letter from the Pope now required a whole bloody inquisition.
Clearly, late medieval bitcoiners will all agree: run your own node!
Make it local for the plebs
The greatest weakness of the powerful is always their contempt and distrust of ordinary people.
Imagine living in a world where only officially accredited people can legitimately interpret the truth, written in a language incomprehensible to anyone who has not been brainwashed by the same institutions. It’s a big stretch of the imagination.
In situations like this, the truth becomes a dime a dozen. When Martin Luther translated the Bible into vernacular German and at the same time rejected that the Church was necessary to read it, he simply took it up and made it local.
Trust that anyone can have a relationship with the truth if you make it available to them. Make some memes, write a text, start a podcast, translate a book!
OPSEC matters
Luther probably didn’t intend to spend 300 days hiding in the attic of Wartburg Castle, but he totally outdid himself.
While the Inquisition had existed in various forms for hundreds of years, it was radicalized in response to the printing press and became truly cruel only some time after the Reformation.
Operational security (OPSEC) issues and institutions that seem benign today can turn you upside down tomorrow.
This lesson is quite simple: make sure bitcoin is not linked to your identity through know-your-customer (non-KYC) exchanges, never tell anyone how much bitcoin you own and take steps to protect your anonymity whenever you can.
Create your own ecosystem
Let’s have a show of hands. Who has used Bitcoin before? Who has used Lightning before? Who runs their own node? Who has been to El Salvador?
The first princes to stand up for the Reformation were Catholics. They had their own selfish reasons for breaking with the Church. By inviting in an idea whose time had come, they fundamentally transformed their kingdoms in ways that are still very visible today.
It is no coincidence that the richest and most successful countries in Europe today are in Northern Europe, as they have been for centuries now.
So if you believe, as I do, that Bitcoin is a fork of freedom and prosperity, it is as morally incumbent upon us to spread local adoption as it is for a Christian to save your soul.
Organize or attend meetings, teach your hairdresser about bitcoin, offer to pay people back over Lightning.
And if it doesn’t work, run to a place that does.
Make it open source
Translating and distributing the Bible while rejecting the Church as necessary for individuals to interpret it basically ushered in the Reformation.
While some ran with the open source Bible and made themselves the “Supreme Head of the Church of England”, to this day there are basically as many parts of the Reformation as there are congregations.
This means that there is no single point of failure, and the great variety of belief and action made the Reformation far more antifragile than the monolithic superstructure sought to challenge.
Crushing it became an impossible game of mule.
Create community with Bitcoiners, build the citadel of your dreams and bring your bitcoin knowledge and perspective to the table.
Turn Bitcoin into a hydra.
Die on this hill
The strange thing about Jesus is that he could have cut it all off at any time, but he didn’t.
He went to a gruesome end, not knowing if his sacrifice would make a difference. He did not blame God, the authorities or his fellow men for what happened. He carried his own cross and his own suffering.
He did this because of something we now know to be mathematically true, both at the individual and societal level: The more people are willing to suffer for the sins of others, the less sin there will be for everyone to suffer for.
Jesus literally invented the meme: I will die on this hill.
Conclusion
There are a number of ideas, tools and communities that all make up the intellectual, technological and social arsenal of Bitcoin. Whether you prefer to think of Bitcoin as a way to save our freedoms, our economy, or the climate, I hope I’ve helped you zoom out and inspired you to think about how you can arm yourself and those around you for decades forwards.
This is a guest post by Erik Dale. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
