The Financial Millennium

As a financial technology with a millenarian attitude, cryptocurrencies were bound to produce their own heretics and schismatics. Communicating over Telegram channels, conference calls, symbol-laden images, and multi-hour YouTube videos, believers assert that Bitcoin and Ethereum are the exoteric fo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Brunton, Finn 1980- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2024
In: Zygon
Year: 2024, Volume: 59, Issue: 1, Pages: 321–39
Further subjects:B NESARA-GESARA
B cryptocurrency
B Millenarianism
B Conspiracy Theory
B Apocalypse
B blockchain
B internet culture
B QAnon conspiracy theory
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Summary:As a financial technology with a millenarian attitude, cryptocurrencies were bound to produce their own heretics and schismatics. Communicating over Telegram channels, conference calls, symbol-laden images, and multi-hour YouTube videos, believers assert that Bitcoin and Ethereum are the exoteric forms of the hidden "chosen one": XRP, a prominent but not industry-leading cryptocoin. For those who believe, XRP is one component of a total economic and social transformation under a set of secret laws about to be revealed. Elites will be brought low, believers will become rich, global financial infrastructure will be rebased in a jubilee, and miraculous technologies and beings will be disclosed. For many theorists, this monetary apocalypse is part of an explicitly Christian apocalyptic event. In this article, I draw on archives across a variety of formats to explain the evolution of an apocalyptic crypto sect and use these archives to reflect on the context and future of religious imaginaries in the blockchain space.
ISSN:1467-9744
Contains:Enthalten in: Zygon
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.16995/zygon.11011