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Darthcoin once posted a picture about the 7 deadly sins to talk about the greed that leads people to making poor financial decisions.
In that spirit, I have decided to write about the seven Holy virtues as it relates to Bitcoin. They are:
Humility - They say "Stay humble, stack sats". In Bitcoin, many people will create content explaining Bitcoin to people and grow prideful about it. So, when a Bitcoiner points out that they got something wrong, or that they shouldn't be telling people to take out debt to buy Bitcoin, they believe they're being wronged somehow. A Bitcoiner should stay humble and recognize that Bitcoin is a tool to help them, not something the bows to them in a plea for help.
Generosity - Many people will grow greedy. They start buying scam "coins" or creating these coins themselves to push onto others. Bitcoiners, on the other hand have been building up Bitcoin economies in places that have been neglected by the system. Built with Bitcoin https://www.builtwithbitcoin.org/ Bitcoin Beach:https://www.bitcoinbeach.com/ Cloud 21 Siargao: https://cloud21siargao.com/
Chasity - "The best way to create more Bitcoiners, is to make them with your wife". When you have Bitcoin for a long time, there is an inherent sense that it has more value than the money you were taught had value. As a result of this, the Bitcoiner thinks in terms of several decades, not in terms of one-night stands.
Admiration - When people see Bitcoin going up in price, they grow envious of the people who have held Bitcoin for so long and they try to buy scam coins to have the same wealth (envy turns to greed). The Bitcoiner is not envious of his fellow Bitcoiners savings, but proud of his brother and hopeful to do well for themselves by saving money over a long period of time and happy that they can, wherein in the dollar, they could not
Temperance - This virtue defeats the deadly sin, gluttony. In the dollar system, saving money means being able to buy less things over time, so people spend money now instead. This is not the case for Bitcoin. In this way, Bitcoiners show physical self-discipline in putting off the instant gratification of now in order to build a future later
Patience - This virtue defeats the deadly sin of wrath. When people understand how the financial system works, they sometimes want to revolt, to kill the people in the positions of power that be, as a way to fix the system. Bitcoin is a peaceful revolution. By opting out of the financial system, you are no longer wronged by it. This fixes the system and therefore a system change occurs without the need for anyone to die
Diligence - People who seek to get rich quick are slothful, but a Bitcoiner has done their due diligence. They have had to study the current financial system and learn about how Bitcoin resolves that financial system. They have also had to learn all the ways scam coins, which market themselves like they're better than Bitcoin, fool people and learn exactly what about them makes them not as good as Bitcoin. They also build local communities and do volunteer work to build people up on the new financial system that is Bitcoin.
This has been your religious cult doctrine, and remember, don't take it too seriously. There is no Bitcoin hell (except for arguably a state of existence that is miserable as a result of shitcoining)
Very good write up! Patience is something that few people have.
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Yes. Patience includes not gambling while you wait for the market to mature. It's just being patient and long-suffering.
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These are more examples of community initiatives using the Lightning Network to empower community members.
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And I'm excited to learn about every single one.
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Seems relevant :
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I feel my psychopathic tendencies grow as I adopt these virtues
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As someone from a catholic household who associates more with this than a pop-cultural reference I have really mixed feelings about this.
On one hand it is good that people think and reflect about what is a sin or a virtue. On the other hand I cannot support the degradation of these universal concepts on only a monetary system. They are designed to apply universally on our lives on purpose.
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Yes of course, you could write article after article about how it applies to every individual aspect of your life. I just decided to write about how it applies to how I think about money, but you could have written it about how you apply the virtues to education for example.
I could have just as easily written about how people fall into the 7 deadly sins when deciding on Bitcoin (and scam coins with greed, envy, and gluttony), but I chose to focus on the good, because focusing on the bad helps people less than understanding how to build on what is good.
That all being said, the reknowned economist F.A. Hayek once said "Law, language, money. The three paradigms of spontaneous government institutions" Well language shapes how people think. Like I said, focusing on how to do good helps people do good, better than focusing on what's bad. That's a language change. The law feels quite self-explanatory. "Show me the incentives and I'll show you the outcome" -Charlie Munger. If the law punishes people for doing good and rewards people for lying and cheating, the people you live with are going to reflect that kind of world. In the same way, if your money punishes people for doing good (refusing the sin of usury will mean a bad credit score which is used to decide if you can rent a car or rent at all for example) then the people you live with are going to reflect this structure in the same way. This idea is really what I wanted to dive into, however, that should not mean that it has been degraded or pigeonholed into being only about a monetary system.
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Yes, you are right.
There's a lot to write about these sins/virtues, an entire book if you like. But you kept it much shorter possible in your write up and focused on money/bitcoin related.
Will take time until more people will learn these aspects. But no worry, Bitcoin will teach them all the way forward. For more they go deep on the rabbit hole, more they will learn.
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