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You can see the ultimate expression of Calvinism/Protestantism in Bitcoin too, where authority over what counts as money is granted to machines that can prove that they have done ‘work’. This proof is not judged by a human, but rather by the laws of mathematics and physics - I.e. the creations of God, thus Bitcoin is a money whose purity is sanctified by an offering of work done for its own sake.


That view implies and required the acceptance of a God, though - it's like saying that gravity itself is the ultimate expression of protestantism (not sure if your post is supposed to be a /s).


No, not necessarily. You can be psychologically influenced by a society imbued with religious moral undertones to the point where you unwittingly want to "prove yourself" to "some omnipotent other." I think it's fairly common, actually.


It only presupposes that ‘God’ is a symbol for an enforcer of laws that are above human laws. This is self-evidently a pre-requisite for Bitcoin.


It is self-evident that BTC was invented specifically in rejection of and in opposition to being judged by humans. One could easily compare this to the importance of purity in religious contexts but it would be foolish to assume there is any connection.


> it would be foolish to assume there is any connection.

Given the history of human ideas, it would be equally foolish to assume there was not.

Atheists do a lot of things religious people do because they are still part of a tradition even if they don’t ‘believe’.




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