The Reformation of Money: Bitcoin’s Whitepaper And Its Parallels To Martin Luther

It’s that time of year when the leaves are changing, the chill of winter is in the air, and many of us in the Western world are once again gearing up for the holiday season. Thanksgiving and Christmas are important holidays for many and one of the best times to gather with family. Still, I would argue that one of the most important holidays is only celebrated by .01 percent of the global population.

That’s right, I am talking about Whitepaper Day. It was 15 years ago today that one of the most important documents ever written was released to the world. The importance of this document is akin to Martin Luther, who published his 95 Theses in Wittenberg, Germany, on October 31, 1517.

Satoshi Nakamoto must have been a student of history because there is little chance this was a coincidence and Satoshi must have understood the significance of publishing the Whitepaper on this day. The parallels between the Whitepaper and the 95 Theses simply can’t be ignored.

Martin Luther’s 95 Theses directly challenged the established moral authority and teachings of the Catholic Church that were never questioned by the average person in those days due to blind obedience to the powers that be.

To the typical citizen back then, the Church had the final say on everything and was never to be questioned. This system worked for a very long time until, one day, people started asking questions.

Such meaningful changes to how people see the world, such as what occurred during the Reformation, don’t happen in a vacuum. There was a series of events that led people to this paradigm shift.

The Catholic Church in the 1500s operated more like a government than a religious institution. Popes in those days were in charge of massive bureaucracies that dealt with everything from forging alliances, building armies, and preying on the fears of their congregants to create a corrupt money-making enterprise.

Essentially, over the centuries, the Catholic Church diverged from the original mission of spreading the Gospel and obeying God’s commandments and became more focused on worldly issues of money and power.

The same paradigm shift about money and power is occurring right now and is present in the genesis block. “ The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks” is more than an observation of the news: It is a realization that the global monetary system is irreparably broken.

Man has proven time and time again over the centuries that when given absolute power over the lives of others, even the most pious and well-meaning among us will become corrupt. It is a fatal flaw of the human condition. The only thing that we as humans can do is to mitigate this urge as much as possible.

This is what makes the Bitcoin Whitepaper such a profound and essential part of world history.

Everybody knows, young and old, that money makes the world go round. This is why most people roll out of bed and head to a job they hate to earn little pieces of paper that their governments say have value. People do this because they want what the pieces of paper represent.

These pieces of paper represent time, labor, and desires for goods and services that can benefit their lives. Just like in the days of Martin Luther, the masses were content with the Church having all the power. People today are content with governments controlling the money printer. But a few are starting to ask questions and notice things.

The surging inflation of the last two years is becoming hard for the average consumer to ignore, and the burgeoning global debt crisis is an intractable problem that central banks can only solve by printing more political currency units, thus further devaluing them in a vicious debt spiral until monetary collapse.

The publication of the Bitcoin whitepaper and the widespread dissemination of this information has shown the world that there is a better way to create money, in a way that takes the power and temptation away from our so-called leaders to print new money at will for their own benefit. Bitcoin binds this innate temptation towards corruption in an unbreakable chain of positive incentives, decentralization, transparency, and hard-capped supply, enabled by the ingenious difficulty adjustment and backed by the world’s energy.

These features never existed in the barter system, the gold standard, or the fiat system we are living under right now. Today, we have the opportunity to remake the world with better money that works for everyone and not just the elite. This is a social experiment that has never been tried in human history and is one that we can ill afford not to try.

We have seen the results of other types of money. Why not try money that can’t be created out of thin air or confiscated by governments? What else do we have to lose? Our backs are against the wall, folks; it’s either freedom or tyranny. Liberty or death. Which way will humanity go?

On this glorious Whitepaper day, choose hope over despair. Stand up to the powers that be like Martin Luther did so long ago and change the world with each action you take.

Remember, “ It does not take a majority to prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.” - Samuel Adams