With Bitcoin’s price nearly doubling in the last 3 months, it inevitably gets people interested and I have been getting more questions like:
- Should Christians invest in Bitcoin?
- What does the Bible say about Cryptocurrency?
- Is crypto okay for Christians to invest in?
- Is Cryptocurrency evil?
- Is Bitcoin Biblically responsible?
- and so on…
And so I wanted to take a few minutes today to give my thoughts on it.
And just to give you some background, I have been a Christian following Jesus for about 25 years at this point. And I have spent the last 15 years teaching financial concepts specifically to Christians.
I am an investigator at heart and consider it my job to investigate new financial apps, financial strategies, and investment ideas myself (with my own money) so I can share the winners with you and the SeedTime community.
My Crypto journey
And that leads me to February 2020 when I first stepped into the world of Cryptocurrencies and invested a few hundred dollars into Bitcoin and Ethereum after hearing about them for years.
Over the last couple years I have spent well over 100 hours investigating this whole crypto thing to find out if it all is a scam or if it really is an emerging technology that is going to change the world (like the internet did).
So that”s a little bit of where I am coming from as I write this today.
Cryptocurrency and Christianity
In terms of what the Bible says about it, obviously there aren’t any specific scriptures about cryptocurrency.
So it requires us to dig a little deeper.
So what does the Bible say about crypto?
Proverbs 13:11 NLT is where I want to start with this discussion, because I personally think it is the biggest danger to Christians investing in Cryptocurrencies.
Wealth from get-rich-quick schemes quickly disappears”
Proverbs 13:11 NLT
And the Living Bible translates it like this: “Wealth from gambling quickly disappears”
So what exactly is gambling?
I think we tend to think of gambling as just going to the casino and that is typically true.
But there is a big difference between a professional poker player and someone playing slots.
I would argue that the person playing slots is gambling and the professional poker player is working.
For the pro poker player he has done the research, honed his craft, studies his opponents, and knows the odds.
If he is actually going to remain a pro-poker player he has to do all these things.
Contrast this with me randomly walking into a casino and sitting down to play poker. For me, this would certainly be gambling because I haven’t put in the work that he has.
So the difference between the two of us is that he has done the work and I haven’t.
Investing in stocks
This is why when a world class stock picker buys a stock in a company it is not gambling, but investing. On the other hand when joe blow buys stock in a company that he knows nothing about because he heard other people are making money, that is NOT investing, but that is gambling.
So two people can put money into the same thing, and for one it can be gambling and for the other it can be an investment.
And as an aside, this isn’t a black and white distinction. It is more of a continuum. And education (ahem, maybe in our 10x investing course) is the best way to move towards the side of investing away from the gambling side.
Investing in crypto
So that brings us back to whether or not Bible-believing Christians should be investing in crypto. The biggest problem I see right now is that there are far too many people (including Christians) gambling by putting money in crypto, rather than investing in it.
To make matters worse, I have seen far too many people who are pouring their life savings into crypto, not understanding the risk/reward ratio (more in our 10x investing course on this) and using sound wisdom.
I believe part of wise investing is diversifying and not putting all your eggs in one basket – especially a very volatile basket like crypto.
But it is tempting when we see all these 22 year old crypto-millionaires on YouTube and Instagram.
And so in terms of crypto, it’s really easy to gamble.
I think that is a really big temptation that has to be resisted.
And like all Biblical wisdom, it isn’t to steal our fun, but to protect us.
So with that in mind, I believe the key to investing in crypto properly is to understand the risks and know what (and why) you are investing in it.
Crypto can be a currency or a store of value
For me, when it comes down to it, Bitcoin or other crypto can be a store of value or just a different form of currency.
And if we look back in the Bible we see different forms of currency”“which are all different than our most common currency of the U.S. dollar.
We see mentions of gold and silver, but then we also see something interesting in Genesis 13:
Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.
Genesis 13:2
It is interesting to me that his livestock was listed right there along the silver and gold and an indication of his wealth. Livestock was a store of value and was also one of the earliest forms of currency.
So, the point in all of this is that there have been various forms of currency over the last few thousand years, and I don’t think it is necessarily a cause for concern that new ones (like Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies) are emerging.
So, is Bitcoin the one-world currency that the Bible speaks of?
There is no doubt that all kinds of current events are paving the way for the end times, but I belive Bitcoin (and other cryptoassets) is more likely a stepping stone to it than the one-world currency itself.
Without getting into all the technical details, Bitcoin just isn’t suited as an everyday currency that we would use at the grocery store or Amazon.
Additionally, it is decentralized so, in theory, no government can control it. And, to be honest, that is part of the allure for people who are preparing for the cashless society where the mark of the beast is required to buy and sell food (Rev 13:17).
We obviously have no idea exactly how all this will unfold but I certainly understand the allure of Bitcoin in that no one can control it.
An article from Sharecast seconds my thoughts on this…
“Biblical advocates claim Bitcoin would become a one-world currency used to gain control over the global economy. Bitcoin undoubtedly supports seamless cross-border transactions but, it also faces potential regulatory challenges that will continually impact its applications and value over time. Besides, Bitcoin is a decentralized currency, not subjected to any political or institutional influences. Therefore, it would not be possible for any authority to regulate its usage.
According to Christians, the beast’s mark will prevent those who refuse it from buying and selling. However, Bitcoin’s decentralization eliminates the possibility of such control. Bitcoin will support global transactions but no one could ever control its utility.”
And then Challies even makes a Christian case for Bitcoin here.
Required viewing for everyone
There is so much confusion and misunderstanding about cryptocurrency and this podcast goes over a brilliant article on the topic from Sound Mind Investing that I highly recommend listening to.
How I am investing in Crypto at this point
First off, it is important to preface this by saying of all my my investable assets, only about 10% is in Crypto since it is so speculative. And some people would say that is way too high.
But please, please, please, don’t become one of those people who email me saying “I put my life savings in (insert any new and popular coin) because I thought I would get rich in 2 months and I lost it all”.
Be wise and diversify – and if you don’t know how, please take our 10x investing course and let me help you.
Now, given everything that we have discussed, personally I am spending the time to get educated and doing my best to invest wisely in this whole new thing we call crypto.
At the moment I am particularly interested in the long-term possibilities of the role Bitcoin could play and as a result that’s where the bulk of my crypto investments lie.
I also am in some smaller (and higher risk coins) and have also been utilizing a crypto bot trading strategy for the last 18 months as well.
Where should you invest in Crypto?
I am hesitant to put this on here because the goal of this article isn’t to encourage you to put money into Crypto. That is a decision that you need to prayerfully make for yourself.
But I have also been doing this long enough to know that a lot of readers will be asking this question anyway, so I figure I might as well address it here.
I began my journey using Coinbase which I found to be a great starting point as it was (and seems to still be) the easiest way to turn your fiat money (like U.S. Dollars) into Bitcoin or other coins.
At the time of this writing they are offering a $10 signup bonus. Additionally, if you want more free money to invest into crypto, you should check out this video I did here.
So, do you own any crypto or plan to?
So those are my thoughts. But I’d love to hear your thoughts on this whole thing. If you have other reasons why you think Christians should (or shouldn’t) invest in crypto I would love to hear about it in the comments below…
