Is Bitcoin a religion? If not, it soon could be – Cointelegraph Magazine

Hass McCook is a respected Sydney-based civil engineer who has worked on some of the most spectacular buildings in the world, from Munich’s Allianz Arena to Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands.

He also considers Bitcoin to be his religion.

Better known on Twitter as Friar Hass, the 35-year-old had a religious epiphany about Bitcoin in 2017.

In a tale reminiscent of the Bible’s The Trials of Job, McCook bought Bitcoin three years earlier at $1,000 a coin and watched it lose 90% of its value. He then lost a substantial proportion of the remaining sum when the Bitfinex exchange was hacked.

“That sent me down into the psychological and spiritual gutter,” he says. “And I came out of that with a religious experience.” He’s not being ironic.

“They always say in times of tragedy and trauma, people turn to God. That is sort of what happened with me. It’s tough to describe the experience, but basically, the best way I can describe it is I went to Bitcoin.”

As a member of the Bitcoin Mining Council and friendly with MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor, McCook views Bitcoin as a form of energy, and as Einstein was fond of pointing out that when it comes down to it, everything in the universe is energy.

I literally WENT to Bitcoin, and now Bitcoin is my religion@dergigi

— Friar Hass (@FriarHass) July 11, 2021

“It was the culmination of all of my learning, experience and trauma — it was the realization that you and I, in long-term equilibrium, are just Satoshi,” he says. “Every atom in the universe through heat and energy transfer, one day will become literally Bitcoin.” He adds:

“It’s a very, very powerful thing, like we get buried into the ground, we go into the ground, become worm food, circle of life and eventually it ends up in the grid. You literally end up in Bitcoin.”

When this feature was first commissioned, it was intended to be a fun exploration of the idea that the culture around Bitcoin is metaphorically a bit like a religion. But, it turns out that some people are starting to view it as a literal religion — or at least an ideology or even a cult that has the potential to turn into one.

It sounds crazy — maybe it is crazy — but there’s more substance to the idea than you might expect.

Bitcoin Holy Capitol

The religious echoes seemed pretty obvious to many observers of the recent Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami.

The New York Times article was titled “Thousands descend on Miami to glorify Bitcoin” and quoted the convention center’s owner Moishe Mana saying: “The more you fight religion, the more holy it becomes and the stronger the movement becomes,” he said. 

Media outlet Paradox described how a “ten-thousand-plus legion of devoted believers” came together with “followers of Bitcoin maximalism” to listen to the high priests of the movement:

“Before thousands of wide-eyed attendees like Joel Olsteen preaching at a megachurch, prophets like Michael Saylor called Bitcoin the ‘apex’ of human achievement, while architects of the Holy Capitol blatantly acknowledged the asset as a full-fledged religious movement.”

And just like followers of a religion, Bitcoiners believe, with some justification, that they’re on a righteous mission to change the world. Twitter’s Jack Dorsey told the crowd: “I don’t think there is anything more important in my lifetime to work on.”

Established 2012

The concept dates back to at least late 2012 when Bitcointalk forum user Crazy-rabbit posted:

“I’m sure people have noticed how eerily similar to religion Bitcoin is becoming. The mythical founder, the email disciples, the followers… So why doesn’t someone just do it already and register the Church of Satoshi? There is certainly enough philosophy here.”

As it happened, a satirical Bitcoin Church had commenced operations a month earlier, urging followers to “Praise Bitcoin” and “Honor the Blockchain.” A more sincere effort called The Church of Bitcoin was established…