The people who are finding God through, and in, Bitcoin

For Joseph Laycock, a professor of religious studies at Texas State University who recently wrote about Bitcoin and religion, the emergence of a Christian Bitcoin community isn’t surprising. “In America, we have Christian versions of everything,” he says in an interview, adding later, “We have Christian golf balls in addition to normal golf balls. We have Christian rap albums in addition to normal rap albums.”

However, Laycock suggests that the union of Bitcoin and Christianity isn’t merely coincidental. He sees parallels between Bitcoin belief and a “paranoid streak of American evangelicalism,” which views the world as a battle between good and evil. Bitcoin devotees likewise believe that the cryptocurrency is “good money,” a righteous overhaul of a corrupt, international monetary system.

And Laycock also recognizes a resonance between Bitcoin and the “prosperity gospel,” a Christian movement that began after World War II whose preachers argue that Jesus wants his flock to be rich. Similarly, Bitcoin evangelists like Patrick Melder argue that Bitcoin will make adopters well off and help them beat inflation. “In the not-too-distant future,” he writes, “those who adopted Bitcoin early, will be immensely wealthy.”