Reflections on two bitcoin conferences, Evangelical Focus
Economics. Perhaps the word inspires fear of economic change, vague memories of a high-school economics class, or questions why a small board of Federal Reserve members exert so much influence in our daily lives.
Increasingly since the 20th century, people assume economics is an arcane mathematical discipline with few deep connections to Christianity and the church.
After all, what does Athens have to do with Jerusalem? Quite a lot, it turns out.
The last week of July, I attended two back-to-back bitcoin conferences in Nashville, Tennessee: the two-day Christian “Thank God For Bitcoin” (TGFB) conference, and the much larger two-day mainstream conference, Bitcoin 2024, where former president Donald Trump had recently been announced as the headline speaker.
I wanted to learn how Christian and non-Christian audiences think about the latest innovative monetary technology, bitcoin.
In its third year, the TGFB conference gathered nearly 300 people to Nashville.
Day one focused on thinking biblicaly about economics, and day two more directly on bitcoin and the church.
We started each day with a time of praise and worship, voicing thanks to God for the goodness of his creation, and for the overwhelming greatness of his redemptive work in Christ.
There’s something amazing about worshiping God as Christian bitcoiners or bitcoin-curious Christians. Thanking God for a creational good like money while allowing it to direct our attention beyond itself to God, we sang truths such as those from the hymn Be Thou My Vision:
“Riches I heed not nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine inheritance now and always;
Thou and Thou only first in my heart,
High King of heaven, my treasure Thou art”.
Over the two days, we heard from professors of economics and philosophy, pastors-theologians, bitcoin developers, entrepreneurs, a homesteading farmer, investors, podcasters, and politicians.
Often collaborating together online, Christian bitcoiners gathered in-person to celebrate God’s generosity. New connections were made. Curious pastors and laypeople learned more about bitcoin as a creational gift to be used for God’s glory.
There I sat the first day of the conferences, listening as an accomplished programmer and Bitcoin Core contributer Jimmy Song gave a lecture titled “Financial Holiness: Putting Money in the Right Place”.
Song, a Korean-American wearing his iconic white cowboy hat and Texan boots, challenged us not to fall to the idolatrous greed that so often accompanies debt-based fiat money systems. Rather, trust God as we work, use money like bitcoin to do good, but store up treasures in heaven.
Dr. Jörg Guido Hülsmann’s talk, The Ethics of Money Production, stood out for its clear argument that money ought to respect the biblical laws requiring just weights and measures, and its warning that consequenses of government intervention in money include price inflation and wealth redistribution via Cantillionism − those close to money creation benefiting at the expense of everyone else.
The day wrapped up with TGFB Executive Director Jordan Bush reminding us that every money is shaped by a philosophical anthropology, because money is will-fulfillment technology.
We use money to do our wills. Fiat currencies − money created from nothing except government decree or fiat − allow governments to function like gods. Yet as Christians, money is a creational gift to be used for God’s glory.
On day two, we heard about how bitcoin serves as a means for funding missions where Christians are persecuted, as a financial tool for women in oppressive regimes, as an international remittance tool, as a catalyst for sustainable economic development in places like El Zonte (El Salvador), as a tool giving unbanked people access to instant low-fee payments and secure custody, and as a hedge against extreme inflation in Lebanon or Zimbabwe.
Highlights from day two touched a variety of subjects. Parker Lewis explained from first principles why bitcoin will continue to be adopted as global sound money.
Pastor and theologian Tim Fox spoke on rest as proof of work, taking bitcoin’s “proof-of-work” technical concept of expended energy securing bitcoin as an analogy for the finished work of Jesus as the basis for believers’ rest.
Entrepreneur Erik Hersman showed us how bitcoin mining is incentiving river-run hydroelectric generation, bootstraping sustainable electricity for unelectrified regions of rural Africa.
There are amazing benefits to using money aligned with creational monetary norms and biblical laws for “just money”: just weights and measures.
Representatives of the city of man and the city of God, Athens and Jerusalem share a lot of common problems and seek common solutions, since we live in the same world.
This idea of “just money” turned out to be one of the major common themes between the Thank God For Bitcoin conference and the larger Bitcoin 2024.
Many of the 25,000 people who attended the industry conference see the ways government monies are broken. Memes abound, such as the popular “Fix the money, fix the world” and “Come for the gains; stay for the revolution”.
Bitcoiners as a whole are passionate about making money better. They’re also historically quite skeptical of the political process, particularly since on a fundamental technological level bitcoin separates money from state.
Thus it was odd to see the extent that bitcoin has become a political issue in US politics. Former president Donald Trump was a keynote speaker at Bitcoin 2024.
Nor was he the sole politician.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., US Senators Cynthia Lummis, Tim Scott, Bill Hagerty, Marsha Blackburn, and US Congressman Ro Khanna, as well as former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy each had their turn on the stage.
Former US Congressman Ron Paul even made a surprise guest appearance while we waited for the Secret Service to clear Donald Trump to address the 8,000 people waiting in the plenary hall.
But bitcoin isn’t simply a Republican issue, as the conference also included progressive speakers such as Troy Cross, Jason Maier, and Margot Paez.
Believing that both major US parties pursue expansionist monetary policy, many bitcoiners prefer to build alternative systems
Whether one agrees or disagrees with Trump and the other politicians, many bitcoiners choose not to vote. Believing that both major US parties pursue expansionist monetary policy, many bitcoiners prefer to build alternative systems.
Trump seemed intent on always speaking of “bitcoin and crypto” even though bitcoiners see stark differences between the one and the others.
The politicians promised they would create a Federal bitcoin strategic reserve. Senator Lummis detailed that after twenty years it would be used to pay off the national debt − a beautiful idea if they follow through.
Yet in line with the cypherpunk ethos of preferring running code to theoretical talk, we’ll believe this when its functional. Meanwhile, bitcoiners are busy building a new monetary system for the world.
With five concurrent stages of talks in addition to the plenary keynotes, a large exhibit hall, and a Satoshi Kids’ Camp for families that brought young kids, one couldn’t take everything in.
Authors signed and sold books, friends bumped into friends, made new acquaintances, met bitcoin podcasters, thanked bitcoin wallet builders and core developers, hatched new business ideas… The convention center buzzed conversation.
Authors signed books, friends bumped into friends, met bitcoin podcasters, thanked core developers. The convention center buzzed conversation
The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) sponsored the Open Source Stage; they also granted free Bitcoin 2024 tickets to verified contributors to Open Source software projects improving bitcoin and privacy, for which I’m grateful.
I heard some fascinating technical lectures at the Open Source Stage on new developments in bitcoin, particularly around scaling bitcoin layer-two technologies like lightning.
The creator of the PGP encryption protocol, Phil Zimmerman, spoke on digital privacy and public policy, summarizing the mid-90s crypto wars between computer scientists and the US Federal government and warning that strong end-to-end encryption is a matter of natural security.
I browsed the nearby board game tables, where multiple bitcoin-themed games were available to test their game-play; a nice nod to another classic bitcoin meme: “Don’t trust, verify.”
Perhaps my favorite lecture was a talk on bitcoin financial planning, given by a husband and wife team, Pierre and Morgan Rochard. Since she’s the financial planner, he interviewed her.
Their personal banter was joyful, while her message to bitcoiners was one of financial prudence, patience, work for value, and save for the future.
Bitcoin can control things in the physical world, since bitcoin is programmable money. Welsh bitcoiner and hardware hacker Ben Arc is part of an online community building electromechanical switches that can be turned on or off by receiving bitcoin micro-payments sent on bitcoin’s layer-two lightning network.
Multiple bitcoin-themed games were available to test their game-play; a nice nod to a classic bitcoin meme: “Don’t trust, verify”
I’d met Ben initially two years ago at the Amsterdam conference where he demonstrated a bitcoin lightning payment controlled beer tap (the instant payment started the beer flow, so have the cup ready!), so I enjoyed hanging out with him a bit.
After we’d gone to each grab a coffee, while chatting with him at his booth, which had cables, 3D-printed parts, and electronic tools strewn about, an artist came by to repair a bitcoin switch in his art frame.
Later that afternoon, walking through the bitcoin art gallery part of the exhibit hall, I found the repaired art piece. Sending it a 210 satoshi bitcoin transaction (or about 15 cents in dollars), the frame lit up, showing the previously invisible art in the center.
The conference brimmed with amazing creativity, as we’re each made in God’s image.
Yet the city of man and the city of God hold radically different fundamental convictions. The last day of the Christian TGFB, Jimmy Song challenged us as Christians: “Many of you will be at the larger industry conference the next few days, and this industry has some very dark corners”, he said.
At the bitcoin bazaar, a part of the exhibit hall where folks with bitcoin small businesses set up tables to sell their good or services, I saw some of that darkness on display: two women selling jewelery with mixed religious symbols and a book about the divine feminine told me that all religions are the same, drawing on our inner feminine to save ourselves.
They weren’t just selling jewelery, but they were attempting to convince people of their pagan religious beliefs.
I listened, verified that I’d understood their beliefs correctly, and then answered that biblical Christianity stands apart in its proclamation that Jesus’ becoming man was necessary since salvation can only come from outside ourselves. Song’s words echoed in my ears: “As followers of Jesus, let your light shine in the darkness.”
Jimmy Song challenged us as Christians: “This industry has some very dark corners”
The two conferences were full of serendipitous meetings. At the TGFB conference, during a break the couple behind me greeted me, and it turned out she was a close friend of my mother.
The next evening over dinner I ran into the authors of the excellent book, Resistance Money, three philosophy professors I’d previously met once at another conference.
I shared my hotel room during the second conference with a Korean-American guy I met at TGFB who works in faith and tech ministries.
Over dinner one evening in a pub I met Samuel Kullmann, a member of parliament in the Swiss Canton of Bern; he told me that while many non-Christians don’t understand his Christian political convictions, he is known and respected as the bitcoin expert in their Parliament.
Personally, I deeply enjoyed meeting other bitcoiners during both conferences. Bitcoiners tend to be an intellectually curious bunch of people.
In a world that often rejects truth, they view the bitcoin ledger as a source of truth, so they are quite willing to consider other truth claims. One can find easy conversational bridges for the gospel among bitcoiners.
Thousands of bitcoiners came to Nashville to celebrate better money − bitcoin. Many of them also acknowledged the deep brokenness existing fiat money.
May God enable Christians, as citizens of the new Jerusalem, whether bitcoiners or not, to proclaimed Jesus’ worthiness as the sole person who renews all things − including money. May He transform the darkness with his glorious resurrection light.
Joel Swanson, a Certified Bitcoin Professional who aims to develop a public theology of money. He served 12 years in church planting teams in Europe and recently returned with his family to the USA.
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