Tuur Demeester has written a fantastic piece in which he draws several parallels between bitcoin and the Dutch Protestant Reformation. He is an American Belgian researcher and co-owner of Adamant Capital. In this article we provide a summary of his 13-page report.
Despite this summary, we recommend that you read his report. The work is entitled The Bitcoin Reformation and is free to read and definitely worth it.
Separate church and money from state
The main proposition of The Bitcoin Reformation is that there are four fundamental similarities between the Protestant Reformation and the present time. These agreements are aimed at upcoming radical social and economic changes. One of those similarities is that there was a fight going on in the 16th and 17th centuries to separate the church from the state. Bitcoin is the fight to separate the creation of money from the state.
Agreements in economics
The report also examines the similarities between the innovative economy of the 17th-century Netherlands and the bitcoin economy.
- The first economic agreement is the rent seeking behavior of the status quo. Rent seeking means that the ruler abuses power to gain more power. In the 16th century it was the Catholic Church, nowadays it is the financial system of fiat money and central banks. The church was the only party that could give you access to heaven, for which money was charged. After all, you had to redeem your sins by letting go. The service offered by the financial system today is access to the “financial heaven.”
- A second requirement for a reform is a technological revolution. That way you can spread your ideas faster and better. The most important innovations from the 16th century were in the field of maritime exploration, international trade and of course the printing press. The printing press made sure that a book no longer cost an annual salary, but became just as cheap as a chicken. The current technological revolution is digital: telecommunications, mathematics, data storage, open source software, cryptography and of course the internet. The costs of 1MB internet have fallen by 99% in twenty years.
- Thirdly, we need people who have something to fight for. In the 16th century it was the trade class, today it is the millennial generation that does not trust the financial system and that invests heavily in technology.
- And the last requirement for a reform is that you must be able to defend yourself. The Dutch Protestants had water in the canals in defense of invasions, the millennials have cryptography at their disposal.
No revolution without memes
Demeester also deals with memes and slogans.
Protestants used:
- Sola Fide: only faith is sufficient, no priest needed
- Sola Scriptura: the Bible is enough, no church needed
Use bitcoiners:
- Vires in Numeris, power in numbers
- Do not trust, verify
- Not your keys, not your bitcoin
- HODL
Banking and IPO
Demeester also delves into deposit banking by the Netherlands of the world-famous Amsterdam Exchange Bank. In that regard, the impact of bitcoin is just as great innovation because blockchain ensures that you no longer need a trusted third party.
The first IPO in the world was that of the VOC. The shares were so liquid and desirable that they were widely used as collateral. Bitcoin has similar characteristics and can therefore form the basic collateral for borrowing and derivatives markets.
He concludes his report with the following words:
Every now and then all puzzle pieces fall together, creating a chain reaction that radically reforms society. This happened 500 years ago and it can happen again now.
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