Is Bitcoin the mark of the beast system? With strange images of a mysterious currency appearing on the front cover of the 1988 Economist magazine who knows?
Although there seems to be confusion over the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto, the supposed inventor of Bitcoin, are some of us being too cautious for no reason when deciding to enter the growing market of cryptocurrencies?
During a discussion with a ministerial colleague, it intrigued me to find out he and his wife supposed Bitcoin was the mark of the beast system.
Whilst listening to his belief I imagined all the people in Christendom sitting on the fence, being left out of one of the next biggest technological shifts in history. The problem with his belief was it is not based upon adequate truth the scriptures give us concerning the mark of the beast.
“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”
Revelation 13:16-17 KJV
1. Forehead Or Hand
The bible makes it clear, they will receive a mark within either the hand or the forehead. At present, there is no sign that current blockchain projects are attempting to interface humanity with distributed ledger technology. Although some are aware Elon Musk has expressed his interested in Bitcoin and Ray Kurzweil doesn’t agree Bitcoin is stable but likes blockchain; both men are talking about the merging of humanity with AI to produce some future cyborgs. Until they assimilate people into a Star Trek type of Borg situation, I think we can assume for now we are safe.
But, I believe the dangers will escalate once humanity moves deeper into a technocratic world where men receive implantable upgrades or DNA hacks to become something inhuman.
2. Cannot Buy Or Sell Without It
The bible also tells us that without the mark of the beast, it will be impossible to buy or sell. With Bitcoin and the diversity of digital coins, we understand that some of these such as Monero and Zcash include privacy technology. It will be difficult to track every single individual’s transactions and control their economic situations via a network. Also, the world’s food supply would have to come under strict controls to control populations.
My conclusion
Taking these things into consideration I am not saying that Bitcoin could not one day become an integral part of the mark of the beast system. It is possible with the modification of blockchain (which is a ledger of all digital transactions) to track the buying and selling habits of individuals.
I cannot predict how long it will be until blockchain technology has been adopted on a large scale, nor can I predict how long after that until we see stringent control systems set up to infringe upon people’s civil liberties. But I can say in the short-term, which I personally believe is still a few years, Bitcoin and blockchain is an opportunity to transfer wealth from the wicked to the just.
Many people will miss this opportunity because they have a normality bias and do not pay attention to the economic monetary trends that will affect them. I am not a financial advisor so I cannot offer you professional advice on investments, but when you see large financial institutions such as Fidelity, NYSE, SBI Japan and many more poised to enter this marketplace after the run-up of 2017 which took the dollar value of Bitcoin to over $20,000, who knows where the next bull run will take this asset in 2019 and beyond?
