Sometimes I feel as if I’m the only Catholic who is excited about Bitcoin. So I was ecstatic yesterday when I saw this article on ChurchPOP:
5 Reasons Catholics Should Be Taking Bitcoin Seriously
Whether bitcoin or some other implementation of the core technology succeeds, it could have radical implications for authority structures, social justice, and the life of the Church. Here is a non-exhaustive list of a few ideas of what I mean that should make Catholics want to take a closer look:
1) Helping the poor in the developing world
So you want to help the world’s poor (the Church is interested in that, right?). Bitcoin could end up being a huge help.
Participation in the world’s economic system requires the use of a banking system. Unfortunately, much of the world’s population in developing countries simply does not have access to this banking system, or their country’s financial system is corrupt or otherwise unreliable.
Ironically, one technology that people in the developing world increasingly do have access to is the Internet, mostly via cheap smartphones. And that’s all you need to use bitcoin. You download a free bitcoin wallet app and, boom, you can send and receive bitcoin all over the world – and do it exponentially faster and cheaper than you could do it even if you had the most developed banking system.
Of course, this would have most of its benefits only if bitcoin was accepted more widely as a currency. But bitcoin is growing in popularity all the time, and the more people there are working for its use to spread (there’s a lot of work to be done), the faster we can get to a world where a person can enjoy all the benefits of the digital global economy without waiting for the pre-digital banking system behemoth to finally serve their area in a just and reliable way.
Read the rest here.
I encourage everyone to read the full article, as it brings up applications of Bitcoin in the Church that most people haven’t thought about (like cheaply and accurately tracking sacramental information worldwide).
