arcticorangutan on Nostr: Separating money from state On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to ...

Separating money from state

On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the doors of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, initiating the heretofore elusive separation of church and state.

On October 31, 2009 the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin Whitepaper, initiating the heretofore elusive separation of money and state.

The date Satoshi chose for his publication is no coincidence, he was evidently a student of history and well aware of the parallels between his and Luther’s discoveries.

Not only was the Protestant Reformation a process of emancipation from the dictatorial regime of the most powerful institution in the world at the time, the Catholic church. It was also a process of decentralization: Luther told his followers that they could reach salvation without the need for mediation by priests and without the need for rituals or indulgences.

Today, the movement around Bitcoin is in the process of emancipating us from the oppressive regime of central banks and the banking system. Like the protestant reformation, one of its central theses is one of decentralization: Participants do not need permission from a central entity to transact value with each other.

The implications of this are as subtle and yet profound as those of the reformation. Like the reformation, the power shifts triggered by the invention of Bitcoin will undoubtedly lead to crises and potentially even wars.

Today Bitcoin is trading at a new all-time high. As it continues its seemingly inevitable rise, look out for people from the old system yelling, kicking and screaming as an indication that tectonic power shifts are occurring before your eyes.