Decentralized Money and Spirituality

This article was original published on Substack January 25, 2022.

It can be easy to get pulled into the flashy “get rich quick” schemes of altcoins, because they use marketing strategies that make success look easy. Similarly, in the spiritual world you will quickly come across fancy healing types who promise quick fixes, and that you can even become a practitioner yourself – after taking their course – and help others to fix their problems.

Bitcoin can be seen as something old and outdated, like the old spiritual saying “search within”, when other offers of quick solutions shine more brightly. People with convincing luxury sports cars, in the case of crypto, or peaceful happy smiles, in the case of spirituality, allure beginners and present themselves as something worth investing in.

Photo by Samuel Austin on Unsplash

PoW and PoS

All crypto currencies have a consensus mechanism, a network of computers that helps secure the software from attackers and regulates the issuance of new units of its supply. The most popular consensus mechanisms are Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS), and they both regulate the process in which transactions between users are verified and added to a public ledger – a blockchain. Bitcoin uses PoW, while most altcoins use PoS.

PoW blockchains are secured and validated by virtual miners around the world competing to be the first to solve a math puzzle. The winner gets to update the blockchain with the latest verified transactions and is rewarded  by the network with a predetermined amount of crypto.

PoS protocols work by selecting validators in proportion to their quantity of holdings in the associated cryptocurrency. They use much less electricity and computer power, but the currency is centralised as a result, and could potentially be changed in various ways by the people who do the validation.

When you buy an altcoin, you are trusting the people behind the currency to maintain their promises and not be compromised by any companies or governments in the future. When you buy Bitcoin, you put your trust in the protocol that was created by Satoshi Nakamoto and maintained by a huge network of bitcoiners. All holders and miners of bitcoin have accepted the rules of the protocol, and they all support the way it is because it cannot be changed by any person or group.

In the spiritual world, when we invest in a particular branch of religion, meditation or healing, we are basically using PoS, because we trust a “validator” of truth over our inner truth. On the other hand, looking within and seeing/understanding the truth for ourselves is more like PoW.

The amount of work we invest in getting to know and transmute our thought patterns, defence mechanisms, negative emotions, and needy ambitions, represents the only way for us to achieve true self-awareness. The quality of our lives is a direct result of how much work we have put into this process.

Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash

False and True Prophets

Similar to Bitcoin and the altcoin spectacle, throughout history there have been many people who have tried to explain the PoW path towards self-awareness and inner peace, but the “scammers” have a way of dressing up their “special” version of spirituality so that it appears better than the rest, and they create enough confusion for people to think that they can find the truth outside of themselves.

Having said this, I do not think that many “scammers” do it intentionally but they have invested into beliefs that they now identify with and since they have not resolved their inner insecurities they need to confirm their beliefs by selling them to others.

When we believe in something or someone outside of ourselves more than our own experience, we are giving it or them our life force. Imagine money as a stream in our life force, and being as careful with what we do with our money and where we invest it as we are with our soul.

Bitcoin maximalists have come to understand the value of the Bitcoin network, and have chosen to store their monetary energy in the network for a wide range of reasons. They often refer to altcoins as “shitcoins” to help beginners wake up and realise the difference between the various digital tokens.

Most people might need to learn the hard way, as did I. I have never shilled any “shitcoins” but I did use and promote a few healing modalities while I was still searching for truth outside of myself.

Whether it is spiritually or digital money, this is an adventure in itself, and we will learn and meet people along the way. Some experiences move us forward, while others hold us back. When exploring alternatives, it is good to keep an eye out for centralisation and not venture too far into any centralised system. Decentralisation in connection with freedom of thought and actions are good indicators of an environment that will assist us in finding our own path rather than just following others.

Render by Shubham Dhage on Unsplash

Centralization versus Decentralization

One of the most popular “spiritual” paths today comes from mainstream media, in collusion with big pharma, big tech, and governments. The narratives and control mechanisms might not seem spiritual at first, but the same principles are at work, just as in any type of belief system. So, while centralised religions repeat assumptions over and over until people start treating them as objective truths, mainstream media plants worldviews into large crowds of people and presents them as if they were objectively true.

One of the most popular “shitcoins” today is the US dollar. At first glance, it might seem stable and real, but in truth, it is simply a form of PoS, and the validators keep changing the rules and print more dollars, which ultimately decreases its purchasing power. Because of this, the whole world has been stuck with the resulting inflation for a long time, and this has steadily made it increasingly harder to survive and to have time for the pursuit of one’s own passion and truth.

It will hopefully be clear already but I think decentralisation is the way forward. If we believe in a narrative from any source whatsoever, we just have to remember that such narratives are always subjective. Clinging to any paths or concepts we have ever learned is going to become increasingly detrimental. Moving trust from external sources -PoS- to an internal one -PoW- will help us more easily navigate forward, and through this transition.

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Send Sama some sats at ⚡ viscousshrimp88@walletofsatoshi.com

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