Jordan Peterson and Bitcoin
On the Religious Nature of Bitcoin and Jordan Peterson’s Interest
In recent episodes of the Lex Fridman Podcast, Lex’s discussions on Bitcoin come, almost in tandem, with a nod to Jordan Peterson. Certainly, one can simply assume these references deal with Lex aiming for his own sit down with the beloved/despised Professor (would love to make that happen). But, at the same time, you get the sense there is something more to the connection, something deeper, beyond the superficial. Perhaps the pairing of Bitcoin with Dr. Peterson (in these episodes and in other online discourse) suggests that Peterson’s religious conceptualization of reality holds a mirrored reflection in the nature of Bitcoin. As Peterson singlehandedly made intellectually popular (more than anyone in at least 100 years) the archetypal ideals of the mythological and the religious, perhaps there too exists a legitimate element of piety in Satoshi’s brainchild. And if there is a religious nature to Bitcoin, it does seem only natural that Peterson’s name would be tied to the same. So, my aim here is to examine the quasi-religious nature of Bitcoin itself (not the religious fundamentalism extant among hard-core bitcoiners). Why would someone like Jordan Peterson — i.e., those pointing their aim at the highest possible Value — find Bitcoin compelling? My reasons are as follows.
(*Contrary to popular belief, this essay is not sponsored by Satoshi Nakamoto, nor Dr. Peterson — nor does it constitute financial advice)
Faith, The Motor of the Universe
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1
Faith is a verb, not a feeling. Faith is action — to aim toward something you believe to be true/real — or, in some cases, something you will to make true/real (this would be faith in yourself). And faith is the fundamental driving force underlying all human creation, actions, and endeavors. By faith, Michelangelo found his David in a slab of marble; by faith, the entrepreneur posits his or her idea for funding from the venture capitalist (one reason why we revere the entrepreneur is because of their faith enacted to produce something “good”); by faith the venture capitalist provides money for the entrepreneur; and by faith I can take a colorful picture of Benjamin Franklin to McDonalds and exchange it for approximately 26 Big Macs[1].
Faith, too, is the fundamental principle of all scientific endeavor: a hypothesis is reason to act in faith (something true but not yet seen/known). Once acted upon, the hypothesis can, in turn, become theory wherein one approximately discovers/creates (depending on your philosophical bend) knowledge. Rarely does any scientific endeavor, however useful in our conceptualization of reality, become Law — that is, Knowledge. Even Einstein’s Relativity (extraordinarily useful, don’t get me wrong) is still a theory, or rather, mathematical faith. And so, we go about, acting in faith on many things (maybe everything). We drive in our cars based on faith that the timing belt won’t snap, that the pistons are properly oiled, and the tires will hold. We approximate Knowledge by changing the tires every 60k miles, or changing the oil, or checking the timing belt, but we still drive in faith — you never know when fate will call its own.
Monetary exchange too, is an act of faith. By faith I go to Micky-D’s with $100 and they give me those 26 Big Macs. My faith (in this case close to knowledge) is that they will accept my pretty paper, or better, the digital “100” magically on my phone unlocked by my face; and their faith rests in the USA maintaining global dominance, not over-printing into hyperinflation or incurring unstable amounts of un-payable debts, maintaining domestic geo-political peace, etc. And this is the case with all monetary transactions: Facebook Marketplace, Venmo, using a Visa at the gas station etc. We use these tools, in faith, expecting them to be useful/accepted as sufficient collateral. Faith, then, is the most powerful tool available to Man, and is fundamentally inseparable from money (stored value). As such, it becomes undeniably important to realize where it is exactly that you place your faith. And as faith is the basis of all modern-day monetary exchange, so too is the nature of Bitcoin.
In January of 2021, Joe Weisenthal wrote of Bitcoin (the article is, at the very least, delightfully fun to read) as something you have to think of in terms of faith — as though this was Bitcoin’s singular distinguisher among other forms monetary value. But the reality is that one must think in terms of faith regarding all forms of money — we take this for granted (see image below). Yes, Bitcoin does have a rather religious following, but the fundamental faith-based nature of Bitcoin is not unique. All money is faith. All trading is faith. In fact, if trading isn’t based on faith, you go to prison a la Martha Stewart. Yes, one can argue that “well, at least companies make money and produce stuff.” True. But that stuff is produced on faith that said money will even be valuable come 10, 20, 30, 50 years. And I repeat, all money is faith. So one must place their monetary faith into the system of highest Value — at least that’s what Jordan Peterson might say — into the system least likely to corrupt or dissolve for the longest possible stretch of time.
This is why Goldbugs and Bitcoiners so often rhyme, harmonize and monozygoticize. Both camps understand the intrinsic nature of money as faith-based exchange: one camp focuses on the asset that stands the test of time as of thousands of years (a lot easier — a.k.a. risk averse — to place your faith in such an asset), the other places their faith in the digitization of the future (much higher risk, with higher return). But both hold claim to reliably scarce assets universally desirable by enough people to make them useful.
In this sense, Jordan Peterson may find attraction to Bitcoin simply due to its value as the most openly faith based asset available — or rather, Bitcoin, among all the other monetary systems, tells the best and most honest story. Bitcoin encapsulates the highest moral Value, at least in terms of narrative, and thus places itself at the apex of all monetary exchange — verifiably scarce, infinitely divisible, and nearly universally available to all people regardless of social status, citizenship, or global positioning in the world. Thus Bitcoin becomes “the substance of things hoped for,” grounded in the strength of the faithful hodler.
Religious Semiotic Symbolism in Bitcoin
Let’s consider now some of the more semiotic characteristics of Bitcoin in relation to religion. The Bitcoin protocol states that by 2140, all Bitcoin mining will find ultimate completion, leaving the world with a total of 21 million coins. But why 21 million?
Consider the Fibonacci sequence, or the Golden Ratio, the proportio divina, emphasis on the divine. The number 21 holds the seventh place in the sequence starting with the number 1: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21. 21 is similarly divisible by 3 into 7 parts — 3 mirroring the number of the Holy Trinity, and 7 the Biblical number of perfection or rather, completion: “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made” (Geneis 2:2); “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?” (Here Peter suggests a perfect number) “Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:21–22).
And beyond the perfected numerical symbolism in its quantity, Bitcoin too was born out of Chaos. From 2009, the protocol has circulated the world in reaction to both the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008 and a general distrust for central banking. Like the Biblical creation of the earth, Bitcoin “was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep” (Genesis 1:2) until the mythical, apotheotic Satoshi Nakamoto came to declare digital light into the inter-web. Bitcoin, among the Chaos of the Great Recession, established order of humblest beginnings, a kind of new order, novus ordo seclorum — something much along the lines of what you might hear in a Jordan Peterson youtube video.
In his latest book, Peterson writes “there is an ethical claim deeply embedded in the Genesis account of creation: everything that emerges from the realm of possibility in the act of creation (arguably, either divine or human) is good insofar as the motive for its creation is good. I do not believe there is a more daring argument in all of philosophy or in theology than this: To believe this, to act it out, is the fundamental act of faith” (260). And no one, not even Uncle Peter Schiff would say Bitcoin was born of maleficence. Monetarily speaking, the ethos of Bitcoin is “power to the people,” “become your own bank,” “embrace freedom,” etc., fundamental Judeo-Christian values — the backbone of the Western Society Jordan Peterson sacrifices to save. So in this sense, Bitcoin echoes the Biblical “blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5) in that the poorest of the poor (the “least of these,” if you will) can use Bitcoin and potentially increase their monetary well-being; and early adopters/visionaries, in some cases, make this scripture quite literal.
Bitcoin, Mirror to the Universe
Jorge Luis Borges once wrote of his fiction with the following metaphor: “[the] learned doctors of the Great Vehicle teach us that the essential characteristic of the universe is its emptiness. They are certainly correct with respect to the tiny part of the universe that is this book. Gallows and pirates fill its pages…but under all the storm and lightning, there is nothing. It is all just appearance, a surface of images — which is why readers may, perhaps, enjoy it” (5). The same is true of Bitcoin. For what else is Bitcoin other than, unabashedly, a series of 1’s and 0’s? Like the Universe, Bitcoin is largely nothing. But that’s the point. As the world begins to understand to the fictional nature of money itself — a useful fiction, of course — many are realizing that the fiction which displays open transparency to its own nothingness is perhaps the most useful to a generation where hardly anything is secret/sacred or lacking transparency.
So, if money is a kind of useful story to help us navigate the present and the future, you have to find the best one — and there’s a strong argument to be had for Bitcoin as the best. The narrative around Bitcoin is so strong that Ben Hunt recently called it Art. I mean, if I could transact in Las Meninas, or the Quixote, I certainly would. Perhaps Bitcoin then, in its nothingness, like a painting composed of lines and color, is a good secondary option.
As Bitcoin mirrors the Universe in its nothingness, so too grows the totality of its potential. While bitcoin essentially (with some exceptions) constitutes nothing, it is quickly becoming everything to some of best readers of both the world and its future (just listen to Balaji for what, 5 minutes?). And Bitcoin, like the Universe, even in its nothingness, is absolutely beautiful. One cannot think of the infinite possibilities of crypto for bettering the world (again, just think of Venezuela alone) just as one cannot behold a night sky, free of light pollution without standing all amazed. The Universe is art (in too many ways to explain here), and so too, I agree, is Bitcoin. Bitcoin as story, in essentia, evokes the beautiful and aims at Man’s highest potential among all forms of monetary value. Something, at least according to his writings, Jordan Peterson would find of great value.
Religious Factions within Bitcoin and Crypto, The Future
Like all good religious practices, there will always be factions; some, at times, superseding others. This is certainly the case with Bitcoin, or rather, what we might call “cryptoism” on the global scale. With the 2009 inception of Bitcoin, many thousands of different cryptocurrencies have since birthed into the ether of the world wide web, offering anyone with internet access and a dollar+ the ability to buy anything from BTC to ETH to POOCOIN — a rather Baroque array of options indeed. Bitcoin itself has undergone several “forkings,” or factions (sects among believers) away from the original code due to disagreement between those running the protocol. This is because everything that Bitcoin stands for is valuable (thus the speedy adoption) and inevitably filters through our immortal population (wide array of trash/golden projects). The vast landscape of copies, attempts at improvement, and uses of Bitcoin since 2009 (an unbelievably fast rate of adoption/experimentation due to the nature of its digital make-up) show that we value it to a large extent — especially the generations coming up. People who normally wouldn’t ever discuss money now have laser eyes, and everyone seems to feel the need to state whether or not they own Bitcoin — a kind of global confession. Where Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies go in the future is unknown. But it’s recent rise in popularity is certainly a sign that this isn’t a fleeting shift of thought. And as the world becomes dominated by globalization, interconnection, digitization and autonomy, so too will grow the search for the Decentralized.
Consider the nature of Doge coin. Most people who study money/crypto, in any form, know that Doge coin is nothing other than a meme with no aim to better the world other than to fill it with vacuous laughter. But if Doge coin can become a 100 billion dollar joke, let that stand as a prophecy of what’s to come when people vote with their money on the best stories for the future.
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Footnotes:
[1] My wife loves to tell the following story: a woman enters a restaurant, sits down and eagerly waits to order her meal. The waiter comes, asks for her drink order: “do you have Coke?” “Yes, we have Pepsi, does that work for you?” “Yes, if monopoly money works for you.” The joke is funny because underlying the story is the notion that money isn’t real, or at least it’s as real as the money in Monopoly — two different games with two different rules, both arbitrary in individual ways.
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Sources:
Borges, Jorge Luis. “The Mirror of Ink,” A Universal History of Iniquity. Translated by Andrew Hurley, Penguin Classics, 2004, pp. 74–77.
Peterson, Jordan. Beyond Order, 12 More Rules For Life. Penguin, 2021.
