Note: I’m not trained in philosophy, theology, or Newman, so please correct me if I’m missing something below. Thank you!

Newman’s Circle of Knowledge

A 51-year-old John Henry Newman wrote about the Circle of Knowledge in his 1852 work, The Idea of a University. He argued that all branches of knowledge are interconnected and form a single, unified whole.

The interconnectedness of all truth

Because the universe is a creation of a single Creator, all facts and truths about it must eventually connect. Knowledge is not a collection of isolated subjects, but a circle, or a web. Every science (meaning any branch of learning; for example, history, literature, and economics) provides a partial view of reality. They complete, correct, and balance each other.

Omitting a science

It is dangerous to omit any branch of knowledge. If you remove one “slice” of the circle, the remaining sciences will naturally expand to fill the gap, but they will do so poorly because they are trying to answer questions outside of their domain.

Newman’s example was to argue that Theology (a science) must be included in the university curriculum. Without theology, the circle becomes warped. Not only because it is the study of God—a privileged place in the circle for a Christian—but also because it is a science.

For example, how can a Theology-lacking commentator journalist do their duty to report and comment on reality blind to moral and spiritual truth? We get distorted commentary. A distorted human experience for those following.

The removal of “True Economics”

We should expect that the circle is similarly warped upon a removal of economics. In the classical sense, economics is the study of scarcity, value, and the organic interaction of human choices. When “money printing” lightens the constraint of true post-Fall scarcity, economics as a science is no longer true. Its slice of the circle is compromised. Other sciences then compete to encroach upon its rightful domain.

Politics & Finance step up

Today, it seems that the sciences of Politics and Finance have expanded to fill the gap Economics left. Without the discipline of a “hard” economic reality, the distribution of money becomes increasingly a matter of political willpower. We fund ventures, whether private or public, that have assumed money is relatively infinite. The central bank—theoretically an Economic institution—loses its role. Its decisions are increasingly influenced by the encroaching asks of politicians wishing to prevent fallout from a market correction.

Confusion about scarcity

This removal of Economics creates confusion as well as excess scarcity for those who believe the false economic system is true. We begin to believe that resources are infinite rather than finite. We get political optimism and financial speculation, which waste resources. Popular messaging then doesn’t line up with the reality of prices of food and housing, which have dwindled in affordable supply. We are no longer looking at the truth of how things are, but at how we wished they were, or how we are told they are.

The Circle with vs. without Economics

Life in Newman’s balanced circle, with a True Economics, might look like this:

• The dominant force is unified truth / natural law

• The exchange of money reflects what is valuable this side of heaven

• More resources and fairer distribution; intellectual and social harmony

• Educated, balanced citizens

Life in the warped “money printing” circle, we might say would look like this:

• The dominant forces are political will / growth finance

• Money is a tool for social engineering, influenced by the Father of Lies

• We misallocate resources; confusion and blame game

• A confused and dependent populace

Our next post is part 2 of our miniseries, The Catholic Church’s Historical Teaching on Inflation. There we’ll study Papal responses to questions from 12th-century Spanish kings about inflation in gold coins.

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St. John Henry Newman, pray for us!

The Church’s Historical Teaching on Inflation

Let’s review what the Catholic Church has taught about inflation.

I will expand the research of Prof. Dr. Guido Hülsmann that prefaces his 2008 book, The Ethics of Money Production. He is professor of economics at the University of Angers and a corresponding member of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

Definition of inflation

We need a working definition of inflation to start. Here’s Prof. Hülsmann:

We can define [inflation] as an extension of the nominal quantity of any medium of exchange beyond the quantity that would have been produced on the free market. This definition corresponds by and large to the way inflation had been understood until World War II.1

Simplifying:

Inflation can also be called a forcible way of increasing the money supply, as distinct from the “natural” production of money through mining and minting. This was also the original meaning of the word, which stems from the Latin verb inflare (to blow up).2

Present day, most people mean by inflation a lasting increase of the price level, an effect that begs the question: what caused it? This ambiguity makes the modern definition often less useful than an alternative. We will study the classic definition: the forcible increase of the money supply—one clear cause of a lasting increase in the price level, among other effects it causes.

Context on Christian inflation doctrine

Prof. Hülsmann notes that the Christian treatment of this subject is relatively light:

There are very detailed statements of Christian doctrine when it comes to the morals of acquiring and using money; for example, the Christian literature on usury and on the ethics of seeking money for money’s sake is legendary. But important though these problems may be, they are only remotely connected to the moral and cultural aspects of the production of money, and especially to the modern conditions under which this production takes place. Here we face a wide gap.3

What we will study is therefore to be treasured!

Three eras of teaching

We can divide his review of the Church’s teaching into three eras: Sacred Scripture, diverse 12th-14th century teachings, and 19th-21st century encyclicals.

Sacred Scripture

First “era”: Sacred Scripture, as interpreted by the Magisterium and the Fathers and Doctors of the Church.

Leviticus 19, 35-36

Our first building block is directly from God in Leviticus 19 regarding stealing using the monetary system of the time:

35 Do not any unjust thing in judgment, in rule, in weight, or in measure.

36 Let the balance be just, and the weights equal, the bushel just, and the sextary equal. I am the Lord your God, that brought you out of the land of Egypt.

It is the last ordinance of the chapter, which ends in the next verse:

37 Keep all my precepts, and all my judgments, and do them. I am the Lord.

The Book of Leviticus is set at the base of Mount Sinai at the Israelite camp in the wilderness. It is the second year after the Exodus. Moses has received and shared the Ten Commandments and the tabernacle has been constructed. God now provides Moses detailed instructions to sustain the covenant community on their journey toward the Promised Land. We presume the location to be the tabernacle of the testimony because of Leviticus 1, 1:

1 And the Lord called Moses, *and spoke to him from the tabernacle of the testimony, saying:

The “Holiness Laws” of Leviticus chapters 17-26 are derived from its central and frequent refrain, which appears in verse 2 of chapter 19: “Be ye holy, because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” Our verses 35 and 36 contain elements of the Moral Law and Judicial Law categories of the Old Covenant. The moral remains binding on Christians—justice is eternal. The judicial is not binding—using the specific monetary tools of the time is not required today.

In verse 36, we read about balances and weights first. This pair of monetary tools accompanied pure metal money in Old Testament northeastern Africa, that is, the Egyptian empire under which the Israelites were slaves. Note that standardized coinage was not used; pure metal, often silver, or gold, was the medium exchanged. Here’s how the system worked.

• The weights. These weights, often stone or bronze, were official standardized units.

• The balance scale. The pure metal (the payment) was placed on one pan, and the standardized weights were placed on the other until the scale balanced.

There were many ways to steal in this system—the most common was differing weights. A dishonest person would have two bags of weights: a slightly heavier set used when buying goods (to force the seller to give more silver) and a slightly lighter set used when selling goods (to give less silver than required). Another common way was to have the balance itself tilt to one side. “Let the balance be just, and the weights equal” thus forbids stealing with the tools of the monetary system.

Catechism of Pope St. Pius X on the 7th Commandment

Indeed, the Magisterium teaches that what we’ve read is a form of stealing, and an advanced form: fraud. Pope St. Pius X in his Catechism on the Seventh Commandment—Thou shalt not steal—informs us:

9 Q. Is it only by theft and robbery that another can be injured in his property?

A. He can also be injured by fraud, usury, and any other act of injustice directed against his goods.

10 Q. How is fraud committed?

A. Fraud is committed in trade by deceiving another by false weight, measure and money or by bad goods; by falsifying writings and documents; in short, by deceit in buying and selling or in contracts in general, as well as by refusing to pay what is just and agreed upon.4

Other mentions of this teaching in Scripture

This teaching with these specific monetary tools is repeated nine more times5:

• Deuteronomy 25, 13-16

• Proverbs 11, 1

• Proverbs 16, 11

• Proverbs 20, 10, 23

• Sirach 42, 4

• Hosea 12, 7

• Amos 8, 5

• Micah 6, 11

• Ezekiel 45, 10-11

The most concise reference is Proverbs 11, 1:

1 A deceitful balance* is an abomination before the Lord: and a just weight is his will.

Micah 6

The most dramatic reference is Micah 6, specifically verses 10-12. The setting is a covenant lawsuit in the mountains and hills of Judah. I’ll summarize Rev. George Leo Haydock’s commentary on the 16-verse chapter, who references the Fathers and Doctors of the Church throughout his work. The prophet Micah begins speaking, acting as divine messenger, sharing that God summons the entire natural world to witness His legal case against His people:

1 Hear ye what the Lord saith: Arise, contend thou in judgment against the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice.

2 Let the mountains hear the judgment of the Lord, and the strong foundations of the earth: for the Lord will enter into judgment with his people, and he will plead against Israel.

In verses 3-5, God speaks directly, reviewing His unwavering fidelity:

3 *O my people, what have I done to thee, or in what have I molested thee? answer thou me.

4 For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and delivered thee out of the house of slaves: and I sent before thy face Moses, and Aaron, and Mary?

5 *O my people, remember, I pray thee, what Balach, the king of Moab, purposed: and what Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him, from Setim to Galgal, that thou mightest know the justices of the Lord.

Verses 6-7 are “spoken in the person of the people”: they desire to be informed what they are to do to please God. They ask Micah:

6 What shall I offer to the Lord that is worthy? wherewith shall I kneel before the high God? shall I offer holocausts unto him, and calves of a year old?

7 May the Lord be appeased with thousands of rams, or with many thousands of fat he-goats? shall I give my first-born for my wickedness, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

In verse 8, Micah delivers the Lord’s requirement: God wants justice, mercy, and humility. This is one of the most quoted verses of the Old Testament.

8 I will shew thee, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requireth of thee: *Verily, to do judgment, and to love mercy, and to walk solicitous with thy God.

Micah continues in verse 9, then God closes the case. First, He asks the people pay attention to His message of judgment:

9 The voice of the Lord crieth to the city, and salvation shall be to them that fear thy name: hear, O ye tribes, and who shall approve it?

Next, He delivers His verdict. The first charge He shares is fraud using tools of the monetary system in verses 10-12 (bolded mine):

10 As yet there is a fire in the house of the wicked, the treasures of iniquity, and a scant measure full of wrath.

11 Shall I justify wicked balances, and the deceitful weights of the bag?

12 By which her rich men were filled with iniquity, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue was deceitful in their mouth.

A “scant measure” is a tool for monetary fraud for goods gathered but not weighed before exchange, like grain. The “wicked balances, and the deceitful weights of the bag” are what we studied in Leviticus. In verse 12, the Lord says rich men misused these tools and that the ill-gotten treasures and tools remain in their possession. On verse 10, Rev. Haydock’s commentary references, “Full of wrath, &c. That is, highly provoking in the sight of God” from Vicar Apostolic Richard Challoner and “False weights are often condemned” from Abbot Antoine Augustin Calmet.6

The Lord presents His just punishments and loving discipline in verses 13-16:

13 And I therefore began to strike thee with desolation for thy sins.

14 Thou shalt eat, but shalt not be filled: and thy humiliation shall be in the midst of thee: and thou shalt take hold, but shalt not save: and those whom thou shalt save, I will give up to the sword.

15 *Thou shalt sow, but shalt not reap: thou shalt tread the olives, but shalt not be anointed with the oil: and the new wine, but shalt not drink the wine.

16 For thou hast kept the statutes of Amri, and all the works of the house of Achab: and thou hast walked according to their wills, that I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof a hissing, and you shall bear the reproach of my people.

Some of these match today’s inflation outcomes—we will revisit later.

The Lord’s mention of deception in Micah 6, 12

Note that the Lord shares that the people of the city have fostered falsehood:

12 By which her rich men were filled with iniquity, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue was deceitful in their mouth.

This cultural mention is notable because deception is what makes these offenses fraud, as we saw in Pope St. Pius X’s Catechism. We will explore more when we study inflation culture.

To conclude our study of Micah 6, let us meditate that our All-Knowing God did not need this legal process to discern the truth of the offenses. Yet he presented the drama, using His servant Micah, teaching our spiritual ancestors and recording it in canon for our benefit.

St. Paul in Romans 13

We’ll wrap up with a teaching from the New Testament that anticipates the temptation to steal with the tools of the monetary system. St. Paul commends to us the state of owing “no man any thing”—including but not limited to financial debt—in his letter to the Romans. He wrote it from Corinth near the end of his third missionary journey, around AD 57, addressing it in Romans 1, 7: “To all that are at Rome, the beloved of God, called to be saints.” The recipient was the Christian church in Rome. St. Paul gives this advice amidst social and religious tensions in the city, which we find in Romans 13, 7-8:

7 *Render, therefore, to all their dues: tribute, to whom tribute is due: custom, to whom custom: fear, to whom fear: honour, to whom honour.

8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth his neighbour, hath fulfilled the law.

The Greek word for “owe” that St. Paul uses is general. The verb, opheilo, can mean to be in debt (financially), to be bound by duty or necessity (morally or legally), and to be obligated or ought to do something. Thus while St. Paul’s advice covers State-related debts from verse 7, it also covers voluntary financial debts. The financial use is confirmed in Matthew 18, 28:

28 But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow-servants that owed him a hundred pence:

And Luke 7, 41:

41 A certain creditor had two debtors; the one who owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty.

In this financial sense, the instruction is to settle outstanding financial debts promptly. It does not forbid taking on financial debt, as we can infer from the presence of the other forms of debt in verse 7, but instructs one to work towards the goal of paying off that debt and thus regaining the state of owing “no man any thing”. It follows that one should not voluntarily take on excessive debt that is challenging to repay. This advice is relevant to us because borrowing often precedes or even itself is a forcible increase of the money supply, as we will see later.

St. Paul brings the debt discussion to its conclusion in Christ’s message:

8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth his neighbour, hath fulfilled the law.

St. John Chrysostom in his Homily 23 on Romans reminds us that love is indeed the one unavoidable and eternal debt:

… “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another.” … this is a debt also, not however such as the tribute or the custom, but a continuous one. For he does not wish it ever to be paid off, or rather he would have it always rendered, yet never fully so, but to be always owing. For this is the character of the debt, that one keeps giving and owing always. Having said then how he ought to love, he also shows the gain of it, saying, “For he that loveth his neighbour hath fulfilled the law.” And do not, pray, consider even this a favor; for this too is a debt. For you owe love to your brother, through your spiritual relationship. And not for this only, but also because we are members one of another. And if love leave us, the whole body is rent in pieces. Love therefore your brother. For if from his friendship you gain so much as to fulfil the whole Law, you owe him love as being benefited by him.7

Learn more about inflation and Bitcoin

We’re excited to share more with you soon. Subscribe to be notified when a preview of part 2—featuring 12th-century Papal statements—goes live.

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Argument I: The Fiat Incentive to Overconsumption

The past and present—correcting a broken incentive

I confess, brethren, my research into the intricate models of atmospheric CO2 and glacial melt is limited. However, it seems plausible to me that we are doing unnatural harm to our planet under the pervasive incentive structures born of our fiat monetary system.

For over a century, and with particular intensity since the final severing of the gold link in the 1970s, we have lived with the system called fiat money, which includes allowing fallen humans to try to calculate and set a central bank interest rate for their country. While this rate has tended to be lower than the natural market rate, most have accepted this rate as truth and bake it into their economic calculations. This means lower debt servicing costs and, often, taking on more debt.

When the cost of borrowing is artificially suppressed like this, it incentivizes a consumption spree beyond all natural bounds. It is as if the very speedometer of our economic engine has been tampered with to stay low, constantly urging us to accelerate past sustainable speeds, and even take wrong turns in haste.

This artificially low interest rate fuels debt and malinvestment—trillions and trillions of dollars worth—and, yes, the “throwaway” culture, on an epic scale, propping up industries and lifestyles that would not be viable. And these actions are cumulative! Thus, it does seem plausible that 100 years of going too fast does something.

An example that comes to mind is bad soil, a cause that has motivated even the most ardent critics of climate policy to champion regenerative agriculture. I myself was upset at this issue and still lament it. I became aware because some of my Bitcoiner friends, these ones known to reject the warming concern, saw that the overfarmed American soil that supports their carnivore plus root vegetables diet meant insufficient minerals and fragile health for them and their families. A simpler example might be garbage piling up in the desert. In both we see how the natural law, after all, governs not just our moral lives but the very fabric of creation. To disregard economic natural law is to invite disorder in other spheres.

That’s from Laudato Si, which Pope Leo XIV continues to reference. Our Holy Fathers are rightly calling for an ecological conversion of heart. I confess that when I first “converted to Bitcoin” in 2020, I was only calling for a technological change—an assent to an inevitable incentive structure we’ll all eventually enjoy. I fell short. We must pair both: the conversion of heart and the technological solution.

Argument II: Bitcoin’s Imperative for Energy Stewardship

The future—adding a new incentive

With a fixed saving / investment / production / consumption-meter, we’ll slow down the plundering of Sister Mother Earth to a sustainable care. But the Bitcoin implementation of sound money offers more! As famous fiat finance turned Bitcoin-advocate Ross Stevens wrote in a memorable 2020 letter, Bitcoin’s energy use—often criticized—actually incentivizes affordable, abundant, and clean energy in a new way.

He acknowledges the concerns against Bitcoin’s energy use:

The amount of energy Bitcoin consumes is the sum total of the energy consumption of all the mining machines that secure the network. While hard to know exactly, a good estimate of the global total consumption is about 8-10 million people worth of energy. Absolutely enormous. In a warming world, how can this be good?

Then he addresses them at the most basic level:

First, the principle: Bitcoin is a better technology for performing central banking than the current government monopolies on central banking. In the same way that cars consume far more energy than the bikes and horses they replaced... Bitcoin’s better monetary system consumes far more energy than the current central banking system. Throughout history, energy use has grown whenever free people making free choices have decided for themselves that the price of the extra energy for the new technology they wanted was worth it. Today, every day, 24/7, Bitcoiners around the world make the decision that the price of Bitcoin’s energy use is worth it because Bitcoin is better technology for money.

He then calls readers to look beyond, to the transformative second and third order effects:

Second, the practice: Bitcoin mining is the only profitable use of energy in human history that does not need to be located near human settlement to operate. The long-term implications of this are world changing and hiding in plain sight.

Before Bitcoin, the problem of energy has never been its scarcity, but only our ability to channel it geographically where it is needed most… Because of satellites and wireless internet connections, Bitcoin mining can be located anywhere.

For example, remote, destitute areas blessed with moving water can monetize their natural resource good fortune by creating clean, hydro energy and using it to mine Bitcoin. Thus, Bitcoin can make monetizable isolated energy sources all over the world—like waterfalls, running rivers, or creatable dams—now entirely untapped because they would be cost prohibitive to connect to electric grids close enough to residential or industrial areas.

In doing so, Bitcoin can fundamentally change the economics of energy by introducing a highly profitable use of electricity that’s location independent… I believe the only long-term, profitable Bitcoin mining will be powered by hydro.

Imagine a future with Bitcoin mining firms, unsubsidized, in extraordinarily isolated locations—visualize a waterfall in a largely population-free part of an African country suffering from abject poverty—easily connected to the Bitcoin network, building serious energy infrastructure to monetize the local clean energy source for mining...

The net result can be people locating around new, Bitcoin-driven hydroelectric energy infrastructure, with more and more of humanity clustering around cheap, clean energy sources. Historically, our energy challenge has been to move the power to the people. With Bitcoin, we can move the people to the power.

Consider that the world’s major population centers… each developed where they are geographically because of natural seaports, waterways, and trade routes. Energy was a non-factor because placement of these cities was all pre-energy.

As Bitcoin finances the for-profit development of cheap, clean energy infrastructure on a massive scale, it can lead to a future in which more and more of the world’s population lives near abundant energy with an extraordinarily low marginal cost of production.

In summary, beyond the simple revolution of helping set a natural interest rate that discourages overconsumption that Bitcoin already represents, Bitcoin may also represent the biggest catalyst the world has ever known for developing abundant, clean, and cheap energy, which our Bitcoin economy can then thrive upon, which can also bring about a move away from the megacities.

Mr. Stevens finished the last quoted paragraph about abundant energy by boldly claiming, “This matters because cheap energy equals human flourishing.” Though not complete with my Catholic understanding now, I think he’s directionally correct if we add the change in heart, the change in heart perhaps pushed along by a new incentive system. Bitcoin—far from being an enemy of creation—is revealed as a monetary technology that aligns our economic incentives with responsible and sustainable development. It is a tool for stewardship, bringing forth resources from creation for the dignified advancement of mankind, a purpose wholly consistent with our Catholic teaching.

In Veritas Christi!

Learn more about inflation and Bitcoin

By the way, we’re currently reworking our course to squarely focus on inflation (which artificially low interest rates fuel), its spiritual effects, and the sins it can lead to. We’re excited to share with you what a summer of contemplation, study, and dialogue has yielded. Subscribe to be notified when it goes live.

David

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I’m back from Italy, where I researched our teaching mission on the ground before going on retreat in Assisi and Rome. Here’s what happened, plus other mission updates, and the latest in Bitcoin.

What happened in Italy in May

In March 2025, I received three messages to go to Rome while discerning prophetic prayer at an Encounter conference. One reason became clear shortly after I arrived on May 8th: the College of Cardinals elected Pope Leo XIV. I watched the live stream from Brescia with a priest and two members of his community, one a seminarian and one a university student discerning seminary. I felt the immense reverence of the Holy See as an institution and was inspired to research its well-known financial challenges. I learned about the unfunded pension and budget deficit. Later in the trip, I stayed with a community of priests just around the corner from St. Peter’s. They’ve had to make cuts in their mission due to inflation. I believe the lead priest has a Vatican pension, as he has worked there for over a decade.

Since mid-May, I’ve been writing a post about how we can fix these problems, weaving in the stories of the people I met in Italy. Stay tuned for that; it will also be included in the sixth post in our course: The Material and Spiritual Consequences of Fiat Money.

La Conferenza Bitcoin Italiana

While in Brescia, I also attended Italy’s Bitcoin conference, BitCare Forum ‘25. There were over a thousand attendees and forty speakers. My goals were to understand the Bitcoin movement in Italy and to see if there were startups I could invest in to qualify for an investor visa, allowing me to work near Rome on this apostolate.

I learned from a Bitcoiner named Alessandro that adoption is slower in Italy because many Italians enjoy a high quality of living. However, he said adoption is picking up because Italians are known to save in physical cash, and they are noticing inflation eroding that stored value.

Regarding the investor visa, it became clear that it would be challenging and time-consuming both to find a company to invest in and apply for the visa, so I’ve put working in Italy on the backburner for now.

A retreat in Assisi and Roma

After two weeks of research, I decided to extend my trip, going on a week retreat: five days in Assisi and two in Rome. Walking, reading, and contemplation brought lovely spiritual gifts, including a greater awareness of death and the reality of the Creed. Saint Paul’s tomb outside the walls was memorable. Also, Pope Leo’s Inauguration Mass a week prior, especially the sung Latin litany of the saints.

In Assisi, I spoke with many Franciscans, including a brother from the Friars of the Renewal. He once was uber passionate about Austrian economics, the framework we use to teach inflation. I asked him what he thought was the most Franciscan economic insight we could use for our mission. He thought the Austrian school’s focus on prices being subjective, mentioning how additional glasses of water in a desert—beyond the first—deserve a lower price as thirst is quenched. This truth applies to the price of money—Franciscans have no use of holding money thus none for buying bitcoin. I’ve used the insight in conversations since!

Return to Canada—citizenship and retirement planning

I flew back to Toronto in late May and have since been working on two projects: our Italian citizenship case and simplifying my parents’ retirement accounts. After completing these, I’ll finish the course and intend to begin teaching in person.

I started the citizenship project in 2022, gathering vital documents—some that had delivery times of longer than a year! I’ll send them off to our lawyer soon; he expects a judge to recognize our citizenship in late 2026. This would permit me to live and work in Europe. Should the Lord wish that I work there earlier, I trust He’ll open the door!

Regarding the retirement accounts, I’ve been researching new Bitcoin-backed fixed-income products. These are game-changers for retirees, as these bond-like instruments will better keep pace with inflation and help ensure our elders have dignified retired lives.

Our campus missionary got promoted

In other exciting news, the first missionary we funded with bitcoin has been promoted, and we’re happy to support him for another year! Sean is now a team leader for Catholic Christian Outreach on Queen’s University campus in Kingston, Ontario. We’ve adjusted how we fund him this year, learning from last year in discussion with Sean. I’ll share more about that in a future post.

This re-up, combined with hearing George Weigel state in an April interview that two of the new pope’s first focuses will be missionary work and operational sustainability, has inspired me to explore expanding part two of our mission—funding non-profits and charities—with a greater emphasis on funding missionaries.

Michael Saylor on Jordan Peterson’s podcast

In Bitcoin community news, Michael Saylor, the world’s most prolific Bitcoin educator, appeared on Jordan Peterson’s podcast last week. I recommend it. Mr. Saylor’s software company was the first public company to adopt a bitcoin savings strategy in 2020. His background in aeronautics, the history of science, and fantasy makes him uniquely fit to teach Bitcoin. He has refined his delivery of the Bitcoin story since his first podcast appearance. Not perfect use of religious terminology but that’s okay—that’s where we come in! Thank you for your work educating, Mr. Saylor!

Also, Dr. Peterson offered a lovely reframe when Michael reduced the Bitcoin mission to “people wanting to keep their money” at the end. JBP sounding quite Catholic!

A Gospel-inspired reflection on saving in bitcoin

Last Friday morning, I quickly wrote this reflection on the parable of the talents before going to Mass. The economic reading of the parable is about the choice to invest vs. save. “And to one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, to every one according to his proper ability: and immediately he took his journey.” Here’s my reflection:

The interest rate—defined as the cost of borrowing money or the return on savings, as a percentage of the principal amount—is God’s natural law in economics. It is the Lord telling us, by giving us a base return on savings, if we are to build, to invest, or to do something with the intention of getting a return on the capital, what return should we aim for at minimum? For surely the Lord would again scold us if we were better off just putting the money in a bank: “Thou oughtest therefore to have committed my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received my own with usury.”

For the servant scolded, he earned a rate of return of 0%, because he did nothing with the gift. Let’s say the interest rate was 3% at the time, which he decidedly underperformed. Well, if you have faith in bitcoin, then the “interest rate” in the bank of bitcoin is currently ~52% a year. We ask ourselves: Lord, can I beat 52% a year with any project, a new real estate development, this new highway, this set of new economic immigrants in the hope our company will return 10% this year?

The answer is NO. For most projects, of course.

For those with eyes to see and ears to hear, the Lord is telling us to put our money in the bank and stop investing in things that are not good right now, or worse, bad for us.

In the parable, if the interest rate at the time was really high, like 52%, the Lord might have told the servants to save, then invest later when the interest rate comes down. Sometimes it is better to simply slow down and save, and reflect on the action we’ve been taking. Now, bitcoin isn’t yielding interest, so it’s not directly applicable to the parable, however it is how Bitcoiners think and act, believing it to be true money. Dr. Adam Back—the cryptographer mentioned in the Bitcoin whitepaper—posted similarly inspired later that day:

Then Michael Saylor followed up, as you can see. Some spirit moving through the community that day.

That’s all for this week. Coming up soon: the Bitcoin & Holy See finances post, then part six of our course.

Have a nice week! God bless!

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Five of the twelve posts in our course are now live! Today, we planned to launch the sixth—the most important one in our mission: The Material and Spiritual Consequences of Fiat Money. This post is the last one before we teach Bitcoin’s solution; however, it’s not ready yet, as I’ve been called to Italy next week. I’ll be testing the Bitcoin mission on the ground, first at La Conferenza Bitcoin Italiana in Brescia, then later in Rome.

Updates below.

Next post preview

Here’s a slide from post six that’s ready:

The Catechism and Aquinas demand a stable currency, so the persistent loss of purchasing power in the dollar is a problem—it’s the chief currency that all fiat currencies mimic. Stay tuned to learn why this problem is so pervasive and damaging soon.

Prophetic prayer in New York

A month ago, we were in New York for an Encounter Ministries conference and, unplanned on our part, to attend a Monday evening tavern chat with the founder of My First Bitcoin. (We use My First Bitcoin’s open-source course as the backbone for our Catholic Bitcoin course.) Both events were incredibly fruitful. As I was discerning prophetic prayer at the conference, I received three signs about Italy, two of them specifically about Rome. I wasn’t sure what they meant, so I consulted two priests at the conference and left the signs open for further discernment.

When I returned to Toronto, I came home to a letter from the Canadian government that I had been waiting for for fourteen months. This “search of citizenship records” letter would confirm or deny the validity of my family’s by-blood right to Italian citizenship, a project I’ve been working on for over five years. The result confirmed the validity. I was stunned! Then days later, I saw that Italy significantly changed their citizenship laws, the same day I received the first sign. The validity is now unclear and the Italian Parliament appears to be amending the law before it becomes permanent.

This Italian Bitcoin conference in Brescia had been on my radar for months, but I had decided to not go because I was tired from March travel and course work. Until last Saturday, when I remembered that citizenship through residency is guaranteed for my case. I knew this years ago, but put it aside. But now, with a mission that fits in Italy, and the bitcoin savings to qualify for an investor visa that permits work and has no requirements on time spent in country, it now makes sense to pursue the visa. Maybe the Lord wishes that I serve in the heart of the Church, the land of my paternal forefathers. So I’m going to the conference (more on why below), and then to Rome after to see if there’s more to those Rome messages.

Brescia: Meet the Italian Bitcoin community

The investor residency visa process takes six months or so, and I hope to invest in a company furthering the Bitcoin mission. The first step is to talk to the Bitcoin community to learn about what’s happening in Italy. After that, if it makes sense, I’ll engage our lawyer, pick a company to invest in, and the rest is straightforward. Starting now means that by late 2025 or early 2026 I’d be able to work in Italy, and can even form a non-profit.

The conference is called BitCare Forum ‘25. Their website tells me to expect “More than a thousand bitcoiners, forty speakers, three stages, and a sea of emotions.” Looks great!

Back in Brescia

In Brescia, I’ll be staying with a priest and his community, whom I met last October. A friend I met in Mexico introduced us, and my Mom and I visited because we were staying nearby in Verona. After he picked us from the train before Sunday Mass, he approached his parking spot, and I saw a storefront with a big beautiful Bitcoin sign over the door. A super Italian aesthetic Bitcoin sign. I never got a picture, and wondered if I’d be back. It appears the Bitcoin capital of Italy is in Brescia… I am indeed going back.

This priest happens to be running a pilgrimage the day of the conference. I hope to participate in some of it!

Rome, and along the way

I’ll head to Rome after to see if there’s more to those Rome-specific prayer messages, and to do similar preparatory / exploratory activity for future Catholic Bitcoin education work on the ground.

I have no place to stay as of right now. If you have suggestions for congregations or parishes to visit/stay with in Rome, or on the journey from Brescia, please reach out. Our goal is to talk to parishes, congregations, and lay Catholics in Italy to learn about what’s needed. I am also happy to share our course—by that time, parts 1-6 will be live, and parts 7-12 will be done in draft format.

Moral Money book

Outside of NGU Missions, Eric Sammons announced the pre-order for his new Catholic Bitcoin book, Moral Money, this week. You can pre-order it from Sophia Institute Press. I was excited to read the summary because I was wondering how he was going to teach it. It looks lovely!

provided the cover testimonial. They are a non-profit dedicated to advancing and preserving bitcoin knowledge. Fun fact: fellow Catholic Pierre Rochard (whom we met last year, reviewed drafts of our course, and is featured in the first post) is co-founder.

Interesting note: someone chose to drop the word “Catholic” from an earlier draft of the title that Eric shared back in January:

That’s all I’ve got for this week. Please pray for us, and reach out should you have tips for Italia. Have a lovely rest of your weekend.

Ciao! E che Dio ti benedica!

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Two Canadian Catholics

Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre are both Catholics. Grok tells us about Carney:

Yes, Mark Carney is a practicing Catholic. He was raised in a Catholic family in Edmonton, Alberta, and attended Catholic schools, including St. Rose Catholic Junior High School and St. Francis Xavier High School. His faith has been noted in various sources, with reports indicating he attends Mass regularly, at least once a week, and is influenced by Catholic social teaching, particularly in his economic views. In 2015, while serving as Governor of the Bank of England, he was named Britain’s “most influential Catholic” by The Tablet, a progressive Catholic newspaper. Carney has also been involved with the Vatican’s Steering Committee of the Council for Inclusive Capitalism, reflecting a blend of his faith and economic philosophy.

And about Poilievre:

Yes, Pierre Poilievre was raised Roman Catholic by his adoptive parents, Marlene and Donald Poilievre, and his adoption was facilitated through a Catholic agency in Calgary in 1979. He has publicly identified as a Catholic and occasionally references God in speeches, such as his 2024 Easter message where he referred to Jesus Christ as “Our Lord and Savior.”

Election summary: Carney overcame a big Poilievre lead

In January 2025, Polymarket gave Poilievre a 92% chance of winning the election—Canadians were fed up with Liberal Justin Trudeau. Carney, stepping in on March 14 as Liberal leader after Trudeau resigned on January 6, overcame the lead steadily and decisively.

The Liberal Party will form a minority government with Carney’s win.

The big shift was the socialist New Democratic Party losing voters, and the impact of many of them voting Liberal, shifting slightly right on the political spectrum.

Canadians voted about: inflation, Trump

Increasing cost of living was the number one issue for most Canadians, according to polls. President Trump and a U.S. trade war was number two. So the Liberal Party presented Carney as an economics expert with a calm demeanour to handle Trump. Here’s the front page of their plan—it looks conservative:

Grave evils not a focus of the election

Canada is a secular country, so it isn’t surprising that underneath in the Liberal Party platform we find policies contra-doctrine. Here’s their policy on abortion and IVF:

The Conservatives are against the Church here as well, though less loudly. Their platform is harder to find online, so Grok found it for me:

The Conservative Party of Canada, under Pierre Poilievre, has explicitly stated in its 2025 election platform that it will uphold the status quo on abortion rights. The policy guarantees no restrictions on access to abortion, maintaining the current legal framework where abortion is permitted without legal limits on gestational age, as established following the 1988 R. v. Morgentaler Supreme Court decision…

Overall, Poilievre’s approach seems to be one of minimal engagement, addressing abortion only to clarify the party’s position and quickly pivot to core campaign themes like affordability and public safety.

Brutal. And sadly, not the focus of the election. On a positive note, I believe Bitcoin helps fix this indirectly, so please forgive me if the segue to money again seems insensitive.

Can Prime Minister Carney fix inflation?

Mark Carney’s economic resume is a big part why people voted for him, presumably in the hopes to solve the rising cost of living. Here’s what the populace trusted in, pardon the economic jargon from Grok—we don’t teach this language:

Governor of the Bank of Canada (2008–2013)

Appointment: Carney was appointed the 8th Governor of the Bank of Canada on February 1, 2008, at age 42, one of the youngest in its history, serving until June 1, 2013.

2008 Financial Crisis: Carney’s leadership during the global financial crisis was widely praised. He acted decisively, lowering interest rates by 0.5% in early 2008, ahead of most other central banks. In April 2009, he introduced a “conditional commitment” to keep rates at record lows for at least a year, boosting market confidence and credit conditions… The country was the first G7 nation to recover pre-crisis GDP and employment levels.

Innovative Policies: Carney championed “forward guidance,” a strategy of clearly communicating future interest rate plans to stabilize markets. His actions, including providing substantial liquidity to the financial system, were credited with Canada’s banks outperforming global peers.

Recognition: Carney earned accolades for his crisis management, including being named one of the Financial Times’s “Fifty who will frame the way forward,” Time’s 2010 Time 100, “Central Bank Governor of the Year 2012” by Euromoney, and “Most Trusted Canadian” by Reader’s Digest in 2011.

Then in England:

Governor of the Bank of England (2013–2020)

Brexit and Economic Challenges: Carney guided the UK economy through the 2016 Brexit referendum, a period of significant uncertainty. When the pound sterling plummeted post-referendum, he delivered a televised address reassuring markets of liquidity support, stabilizing financial conditions.

Is this a good set of skills for stopping inflation?

The funding tells the story

Carney’s crisis management largely consists of making debt easier to obtain or to hold. Two main tools he used:

• More debt (“providing substantial liquidity”)

• Lowering the interest payment on debt (“lowering interest rates”).

The funding of the Liberal Party’s proposed IVF program helps us understand what Carney did in his former life as a central bank governor. Most government programs, including the $20,000 IVF coupon, are funded from one of two main sources:

• Tax Revenues: This includes various forms of taxes collected by the government, such as income tax (both individual and corporate), sales taxes, and property taxes. This is generally the largest source of government funding in most developed economies. The source of 90% spending, let’s say, in a typical year.

• Borrowing (Government Debt): When tax revenues are insufficient to cover all government expenditures, governments borrow money, from financial institutions approved by the central bank or the central bank itself. Let’s say this is roughly 10% of spending.

Carney spent his previous career creating and managing that 10% debt spending for government. Unfortunately, this debt-spending created long-term inflation. Here’s a real-world example before we go into the simple reason why.

The $5 footlong

Ten years ago, I used to frequent Subway sandwiches to enjoy a footlong meatball sub for $5. Filling, protein-rich, and full of fresh vegetables! Yum!

The original “$5 footlong” promotion in Canada was introduced in 2008. Over time, the $5 footlong deal had to be phased out by individual franchisees at different times between 2011 and 2015, because of rising food costs and labour expenses.

Yesterday, I bought a footlong meatball sub, and it was $14.99 plus tax. If we apply 10% debt spending as our measure of inflation starting from $5 in 2015, we get close to today’s $15 price:

The simple definition of inflation, and how Carney caused it

In Austrian economics, inflation—by definition—is the rate of increase of money supply, which includes new debt. So 10%, for the example above, is our inflation measure. The Central Banks, following Keynesian economics, use a different measure for inflation, and it is typically much lower than the money supply expansion rate. The Catechism demands a stable currency—fiat currencies lose 10% of their value yearly. This is unacceptable.

Mark Carney as central bank governor making money easier didn’t solve inflation; he caused the cumulative inflation we have today. More, the reason there an economic crisis for Carney to solve was the money and credit creation in first place—an advanced topic solved in the Austrian school. The situation is like a doctor getting their drug addict patient to fix their withdrawal with more heroin. But that doesn’t fix the problem, of course: the pain is pacified with the venom that is the root cause of their pain, bringing more intense pain later.

Poilievre, G7 Bitcoin teacher

The Prime Minister of Canada can’t easily solve the mechanism of debt spending directly because the Central Bank and the government are legally independent. However, they’re practically connected, and Carney’s presence as Prime Minister furthers that connection—he is now in a position to encourage more spending. Inflation will continue to the degree the Liberal government takes on debt. Poilievre’s Bitcoiner mindset would have countered it, hence why his main talking point was cutting government spending.

Beyond that, I was hoping (and still hope!) Poilievre would continue teaching Austrian economics and Bitcoin, as he has in the past. Poilievre is one of the world’s most informed politicians on these subjects:

Along with Bukele in El Salvador, he knows that Bitcoin can help stop inflation forever. He also knows one who holds bitcoin is protected from inflation. He chose not to make these truths a part of his campaign—sensible given the state of Bitcoin education demonstrated in the 2022 Conservative leadership debate below.

What this means for NGU Missions

If I were to summarize the story of this election, it’s this:

Canadians think Carney’s policies will fix the economy, but in reality, his presence furthers a systematic issue.

Catholic Austrian economist Jesús Huerta de Soto, whom we met last year, wrote the preface to the 2008 edition of his magnum opus during a global financial crisis. Fellow Catholic Mark Carney was preparing to pacify the pain in Canada at that time. Huerta de Soto wrote:

The above considerations are crucially important and reveal how very relevant this treatise has now become in light of the critical state of the international financial system... Nevertheless, while it is tragic that we have arrived at the current situation, it is even more tragic, if possible, that there exists a widespread lack of understanding regarding the causes of the phenomena that plague us, and especially an atmosphere of confusion and uncertainty prevalent among experts, analysts, and most economic theorists. In this area at least, I can hope the successive editions of this book which are being published all over the world may contribute to the theoretical training of readers, to the intellectual rearmament of new generations, and eventually, to the sorely needed institutional redesign of the entire monetary and financial system of current market economies.

The problem hasn’t been fixed since, but Bitcoin’s invention in 2009 gives us a new system that, while young, is already protecting many from the material and spiritual consequences of inflation. Thus we go forward with our education mission, with a hope that this spiritual work of mercy can alleviate real pain. Don Jesús shares similar to conclude his preface:

If this hope is fulfilled, I will not only view the effort made as worthwhile, but will also deem it a great honor to have contributed, even in a very small way, to movement in the right direction.

Vámonos!

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Monday morning

Monday morning, after a lovely Triduum, culminating in the Vigil Mass at our Oratorian parish in west Toronto, I woke up in a celebrating mood, my second “serious” Easter in the Faith. Then my sister shared the news: Pope Francis had passed away. I slept in, so I quickly decided to go downtown to the Cathedral where I expected a 12:10 PM Mass. But I read the website wrong, so my Mom and I arrived at a closed church, with some media and two priests out front. The church bells rang, we prayed the Angelus, and off we went, walking out of the closing gates, when a young assignment reporter named Ilyas and his colleague Michelle approached us asking if we would answer his questions for their reaction piece.

As recent as two years ago, I would have passed for lack of moral courage (unsure how to talk about Christ) and an obsessive focus on privacy. But this Easter, the answer was easy: I paused, accepted, asked the Spirit for help, and Ilyas began the interview after walking us a few steps to my left so Michelle, filming, could get the Canadian flag in the background.

So here’s the video and the quotes from the article that came from it. I knew my audience would be a largely secular Toronto population, so I hoped to speak to them, answering the reporter’s questions genuinely. Most who subscribe to this Substack have helped form this answer in some way: the priest who taught me RCIA, friends with their example, strangers connected through the internet—so thank you. Let’s pray this small message reaches those who need it!

Dozens of Toronto Catholics gathered at St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica for a sombre Easter Monday mass, mourning the death of Pope Francis—who they remember as humble, kind and open-minded.

Francis, the first Latin American pontiff, died Monday. He was 88. The Vatican said he died of a cerebral stroke that put him in a coma and led to irreversible heart failure. The Catholics at St. Michael’s grieved his death with acceptance and admiration.

“This is the first death of the pope I’ve experienced as I’ve understood my faith more,” said churchgoer and Oakville resident David Venturi. “And I feel at peace and happy in a strange way—in a good way.”

“I think this is the peace you get from experiencing funerals, the tradition, understanding the faith and what happens after death. So it’s mourning and there’s peace as well.”

…

Venturi, who lost his faith for nearly a decade before returning to Catholicism during the pandemic, said he is grateful to have experienced Francis’s leadership.

He hopes there is space for mourning and reflection before attention turns to the future.

“I’ve seen different sides,” he says of the opinions on Pope Francis’s legacy.

“I hope it’s a legacy of love.”

Mass for Pope Francis, Cardinal Leo’s homily

On Tuesday, Mom and I went back for a Mass for the Repose of the Soul of Pope Francis, which His Eminence Frank Cardinal Leo presided over. Pope Francis elevated Cardinal Leo to the rank of cardinal on December 7, 2024.

Frank Cardinal Leo, 53, was born to Italian immigrant parents in Montreal. He was ordained a diocesan priest in 1996. Pope Francis appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Montreal in September 2022, then Archbishop of Toronto in March 2023. He has been a member of the Third Order of St. Dominic since 2007 and founded the Canadian Mariological Society in 2012.

The Mass for Pope Francis began at 12:10 PM. In Cardinal Leo’s homily, he began by framing our mourning for Pope Francis within the context of the Easter octave. He taught the unique mission of a pope, using four papal titles—Holy Father, Supreme Pontiff, Vicar of Christ, and Chief Shepherd—and reflected how Pope Francis demonstrated them. He ended by sharing that Pope Francis often said the style of God is closeness, compassion, and tenderness: “He used three words, which I think also embody his own leadership, his own ministry on earth to us for twelve years as the Supreme Pontiff and the Pope, as our spiritual Father.”

After the Mass, many of the gathered stayed to pray and approach a framed photo of Pope Francis next to the ambo, where Cardinal Leo gave his homily.

Cardinal Leo media availability, focusing on Pope Francis

Mom and I stayed for some prayer and silence, then lit a candle next to a bronze bust of a smiling Pope St. John Paul II and said a prayer through him for Pope Francis. Then we went downstairs to find the washroom before leaving for lunch.

To our surprise, we found media gathered for the cardinal’s media availability in the chapel. We were two of a handful of people behind soundproof glass windows and lightly guarded doors. The Cardinal read a prepared statement and answered questions. He focused his answers on Pope Francis, rather than the upcoming conclave.

Here are his answers to three English questions:

Q: We will have four cardinals in the conclave. So how significance for the church in Canada and what should the faithful do during these important moments and also when will you go to Rome and this will be your first conclave and what will you pray for the future church?

A: Well, first of all we’re here to mourn the death of our Holy Father and that’s the most important thing. When a member of the family leaves this world, we think of him, we pray for him, we lift them up to the Lord, we remember the life lessons. Remember all that he did and we’re grateful for that. So that’s the most important thing at this stage when we honor the memory, respect the Holy Father who’s gone to eternity. We pray for him. Obviously he’s our supreme shepherd, he’s our Holy Father, he’s the visible head of the church on earth. And now we don't have one, so that it falls the onus, the responsibility on the cardinals to elect a new head Shepherd.

And this is a spiritual thing. We do it in prayer. You do it in discernment, opening up to God and having the Lord inspire us for this great ministry, service in the church to be Pope. And so I’ll be leaving tomorrow, actually. I need to pack tonight and it’ll be quite the spiritual happening, I think. Before anything else, we put ourselves in prayer and we invoke the Holy Spirit that he may guide us. And it’s important, you know, because again the Church is a family. In this family we have different members, brothers and sisters, and there’s different roles, and vocations, and ministries, and responsibilities. And then there’s our spiritual father. So we’re a little like orphans now and so we turn to the Lord that He may inspire, that He may guide, that He may lead. It’s important that we have a Holy Father, a new spiritual father to guide the church for the decades to come.

Q: Do you recall the last conversation you had with him? When was that? Or do you remember what you discussed? And also a little bit of yesterday morning, how you found out the news.

A: So my last conversation was actually in December when he gave me this ring, when he created me cardinal and a conversation… There were two short conversations with him. It was always very personal, very “how are you” and “how was the ministry in Toronto going.” And that he always assured us, he assured me courage, go forward and “I’m praying for you” with a big smile. It was always like that, the end was always: I was concerned and asking how are things and then a word of hope, a word of encouragement, that he’s praying for me. So that was the last conversation I had with him. It was always a joy to see him, he recognized me when we spoke and he was always affirming, always encouraging and those are wonderful attributes to have. Though I found out the news, well it was 4:15 in the morning and my phone started lighting up like a Christmas tree. One, two, three, six bings, seven rings. I said, “Something’s going on.” So I got up and then I saw, you know, people over in Rome, friends and relatives were telling me, “My condolences.” And I say, “Well. What’s going on?” And then turn on the news and I found out that way. Then I went on the internet or inbox and they had sent a message to all of the cardinals.

Q: You said earlier that you feel like an orphan. What is your message to the faithful who also feel that way?

A: My message to us is “Let’s pray.” The Lord always provides and though we’re going through a moment of mourning and sadness, we know that with faith comes hope, and with faith comes courage. So we know that the Lord will provide for us. So I think to the faithful all we can do is pray to the Holy Spirit, be thankful for the gift that Pope Francis has been. We pray for him, that the Lord welcome him back home to heaven and the support we show one another as members of the family of the Church. This is so important, as we mourn and we’re sad we know that God is a God of surprises, a God of divine providence who always provides for us. So I think when we keep rooted in faith and in prayer and in reaching out to one another, consoling one another and keeping that hope firm that the Lord will give us another spiritual father to accompany us, and to guide us, and to lead us.

Pope Francis’ legacy

I do hope Pope Francis’ legacy is one of love. When I first came back to the Church, I didn’t get him. In my ignorance, I thought our mission was to restore things broken, per the Bitcoiner “fiat money has fueled many an unwanted fire since 1971” lens. The Latin Mass started fading away in the 70s… Well, Pope Francis seemed to be against the Latin Mass. Ergo, Pope Francis bad. Also, people I follow on Twitter seem to not like him.

But as I’ve lightened up on the realm of ideas and moved more into the realm of love, more into parish life—still growing in catechesis, seeing more of the “riqueza de la Iglesia” (as I first heard the term living a new community in the Church that Pope Francis supported)—I saw that Pope Francis seemed to be coming to the same problem of a world in a crisis of faith in gentler, harder ways:

• Just being there. That’s closeness. E.g., showing up in Canada for the Indigenous scandal.

• Comforting those who have forgotten their dignity due to intense pain. That’s compassion. E.g., kissing the man with a “deformed face and neck littered with pedunculated neurofibromas and open sores” after his Wednesday audience in 2013.

• “Simply” being warm. That’s tenderness. E.g., the gentle way he hugged this young boy and the soft tone of his voice as he answered the boy’s question if his dad was in heaven.

It is much easier to live in the realm of ideas than to live acting in love. Right now, I’m finding it quite hard to strike this pastoral tone while maintaining true to teaching with family and friends. I’m grateful the Lord gave me some time appreciating him this way.

We share many of Pope Francis’ goals in our mission: ecological conversion, financial transparency, and care for the marginalized, as Cardinal Leo listed in his statement. We'll discuss how in the continued release of our course, but that’s not for this week.

Requiescat in pace, Sancte Pater Francis.

Happy Easter, everyone.

Now we’ll embark on a journey through history, experiencing the origins and progression of money. To evaluate each good used as money, we’ll learn about seven desirable properties in money.

How money starts

First, a bit about how money “starts up” in a community. First, communities bartered. Direct exchange, say strawberries for cows. Then at some point they started using primitive money, like shells. How did this happen?

Carl Menger, founder of the Austrian school, argued that money arose from individuals choosing what they thought was the best money for life or business. Eventually, the market converged on preferred money. People inventively and organically found the best good at being a store of value, medium of exchange, and unit of account over time. Bishop Oresme sings the same tune in his treatise on money.1

Desirable properties in money

Communities throughout history have found the following seven properties desirable in a good used as money:

• Durable: The good must not be perishable or easily destroyed. This ensures that money can circulate in the economy in an acceptable and recognizable state. Thus wheat is not ideal. Gold, however, can withstand wear and tear.

• Divisible: The good must be easy to subdivide, for smaller and more precise transactions. Paper bills and coins can be easily divided.

• Portable: The good must be easy to transport and store, allowing it to facilitate trade over long distances and making it possible to secure against loss or theft. A cow is thus less ideal than a gold bracelet.

• Established history: The longer the good is perceived to have been valuable, the greater its appeal. The US dollar today has a long established history relative to bitcoin.

• Scarce: “Scarce” means a limited availability of something. Perhaps most important for money to function as a store of value, scarcity taps into humans naturally valuing that which is rare—think of the one-of-a-kind Mona Lisa. However, we don’t want it too scarce; we can’t use the Mona Lisa as money. Instead, we want a balanced scarcity. As American legal scholar and cryptographer Nick Szabo termed it, money should have unforgeable costliness: the good must not be abundant or easy to obtain or produce in quantity, nor should it be too scarce or hard to obtain or produce at all.

• Fungible: One specimen of the good should be interchangeable with another of equal quantity. Metal coins (standardized) are better than diamonds (irregular in shape and quality).

• Verifiable: The good must be easy to quickly verify as authentic. Think of a store owner inspecting bills under light. Modern bills have improved anti-counterfeiting technology, like watermarks or holograms.

Now that we have our good money lens, now let's go on our historical money journey.

The evolution of money

Primitive money

We will begin with primitive forms of money, such as shells and beads crafted from local materials like stones, wood, and bone. These were used by societies worldwide.

But locally-sourced money had issues. For example, shells aren’t super durable, precise divisibility is difficult, and scarcity fluctuated as folks found or imported shells.

Precious metals

Humanity moved onward: metal money, primarily gold and silver, and sometimes other or mixed metals. Bishop Oresme preferred high-purity gold coins with a consistent weight and size, with a stamp from the coin issuer for verification.2

Metal coins were more durable and divisible. And portable, because you can condense value into a single coin and carry that instead of a great bunch of less valuable shells and beads.

However, the coins were heavy for large transactions, and some people abused the system by creating new fraudulent coins diluted with cheaper metals, which harms scarcity. The guilty included the Prince trying to finance expenditures or wars, hence Oresme’s treatise.

Gold-backed paper

Communities later moved on to paper receipts saying “we have this precious metal stored for you somewhere” as a form of money, and receipt holders could demand the actual metal at any time.

These paper receipts improved portability once again. No longer did you carry metal; large transactions were simple. The previous scarcity issue was shifted to the banks, who acted as trusted central issuers and custodians.

However, people began to notice suspicious activity within the banks; they were issuing more paper receipts than they had gold in storage, effectively creating money without sufficient asset backing. This practice led to bank runs and recessions.

Fiat money

Partly fiat, 1944-1971

The move to the next system was less about improving money, and more about attending to a crisis. By 1944, the difference between gold in each country’s banks and paper money created became so stark that a global financial crisis was imminent. So in July 1944, 730 delegates representing 44 nations met in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire and agreed on a system:

• The US dollar was tied to gold at $35 an ounce for government trades.

• The IMF was created to manage other countries’ exchange rates with the dollar, which became the world’s main currency.

• This led to more people using the US dollar.

The term “fiat money” comes from the Latin word “fiat,” which means “let it be done.” Here it means that this money’s value is established by government decree. During wartime instability, this agreement temporarily stabilized the system, as it inspired confidence through international cooperation and clear exchange rate rules.

Fully fiat, 1971-today

But the stability didn’t last long. The US, in coordination with the other nations, continued to create more dollars than there was gold, and in 1971 President Nixon had to say no more gold at all. Since then, currencies have lacked direct asset backing, and now fluctuate based on market forces and government policies. Notably, a country’s central bank can now create money without accountability to an amount of stored value, like they had to with gold before.

Other fiat money changes

There have been other changes within the fiat money paradigm. In the 1950s, credit cards started to become popular. People started to use fiat money via plastic cards that allowed you to buy now and “settle your tab” later. Then with widespread internet adoption in the 2000s, people started to use fiat money online.

The main problem with fiat currencies is their lack of scarcity—nations have shown a persistent habit of “printing money” to solve short-term political problems.

Bills and coins…

Practically, we have used paper or plastic bills and metal coins for a long time, but, as you’ve seen, the value those things have represented have changed.

A reminder, our end goal is a stable money, and consistent money printing prevents that. In the next post, we’ll learn about the material and moral consequences of unstable fiat money you've likely felt.

Have feedback to improve this part of the course? Submit it anonymously here.

We’re taking next week off, so the next part of the course will be released on April 26.

Wishing you a blessed Holy Week!

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In this post, we’ll learn about the three functions of money: store of value, medium of exchange, and unit of account, and how new forms of money—like Bitcoin—demonstrate these functions in stages.

In the last post, we learned that most people know money as a medium of exchange—that is, money facilitates trade. But it’s more than that, and the other two functions will help you understand how money today is broken.

Store of value

First, there’s money as a store of value. For example, you earn wages with your labor, then you put that money aside in your “nest egg”—money specifically put aside for future use, like retirement or emergencies. People here are using money as a tool to store value over time.

This is the first stage. Throughout history, goods like shells, beads, and gold initially gained demand as collectibles due to their unique properties or aesthetic appeal. Communities often first valued items like shells, beads, and gold for their inherent qualities—the beauty and portability of shells and beads, the luster and purity of gold, perhaps. Bitcoin was there as well in the early 2010s as a novel digital toy for internet enthusiasts. As more people recognize these inherent properties as interesting and also as suitable for storing value, demand grows, and the good begins to function as a “store of value.” People recognize that it is holding value over time, leading to more and more demand, as education and acceptance spread throughout society. This process causes the price of the good to increase, sometimes in a volatile way.

From a Catholic perspective, we must grasp “productive property” before we understand how Pope Leo XIII wants us to have a store of value. Pause and read his quote below.

In Catholic Social Teaching, productive property refers to assets, primarily land and tools, that enable families to earn livelihoods. Think of a tractor or a laptop. His Holiness emphasized productive property because it was tied to his vision of families having the means for self-sufficiency and flourishing.

Now money, like golds, shells, or beads, isn’t productive property. However, money as a store of value leads folks to invest in productive property. Just like last lesson, we’re going one layer below Rerum Novarum.

Here’s how it works. The Austrian school of economics framework has saving and investment as the engines of economic progress.

Saving is the initial act of forgoing present consumption, of whatever resources you possess.

Investment is the use of those saved resources to acquire productive property, like tools or land.

Saving therefore is the essential source of investment. Without saving, there is no investment in productive property. Then we use that productive property in a circular, interactive flow of producing goods and services and “consuming” them.

So production is the use of that productive property to create more goods and services. And consumption is the ultimate goal, made possible by increased production. Consumers consuming informs producers what to produce, creating a feedback loop.

The Austrian school calls this process economic progress. They define it as an expansion of the availability of goods and services that satisfy human wants. Though the framework primarily focuses on market processes, and therefore can include disordered wants, it does not preclude prescribing a moral element, and Catholic teaching can provide that.

Catholic teaching tells us that “true human wants” extend beyond the material and include goods that fulfill spiritual and social wants. Therefore, true economic progress includes a church with open doors and scheduled services, a quiet garden with seating for contemplation and reflection, and a local theater or art studio offering workshops and exhibitions, goods and services that today’s economic metrics often fail to fully capture.

So, God-focused economic progress is important, so therefore, saving, the initial step that leads to investment in productive property and permits the process, is important.

We can save in consumption goods, like 100 cans of soup. We can save in tractors or laptops. We can also save in money, which is the simplest way to save for the wage earner. A succinct quote from our friend Dr. Hülsmann, to summarize this important teaching.

Medium of exchange

The next function of money is the one most people know about, from last video: money as a medium of exchange.

Once a money has fully established itself as a store of value in a society, the price appreciation relents and its value becomes stable. People then have more freedom to use it for everyday transactions since they are not as strongly motivated to delay spending in hopes of a significant value increase.

The medium of exchange function of money was recognized by the Early Church, including St. John Chrysostom in 390 AD.

Unit of account

Then, finally, after the monetary good becomes widely adopted as a medium of exchange, it evolves into a unit of account.

People begin to use it as a standard measure of value for pricing goods and services. It becomes the money people think in. Here’s an exercise. How much is a hamburger worth? What does rent cost? Some amount probably comes to mind for you.

The idea of money as a unit of account has been understood for centuries. Here’s a quote from French Bishop Nicolas Oresme, often regarded as the greatest medieval economist.

Recap, and where’s bitcoin?

To recap, these are the three functions and stages of money:

• Store of value

• Medium of exchange

• Unit of account

Monetary goods that are not yet a unit of account may be thought of as being “partly monetized.” Now where are we at with bitcoin?

In 2025, bitcoin is establishing itself as a store of value.

Bitcoin is not widely used as a medium of exchange in most countries. Your local restaurant will probably say “no” if you ask them if they accept bitcoin for the payment of your bill.

And because of that, bitcoin is not a unit of account, though it is a common misconception that it is. While you can indeed buy a coffee with bitcoin in some cafes (let’s say in the United States of America), the price listed is the US dollar price sought by the merchant translated into bitcoin terms at the current USD/bitcoin exchange rate.

It will likely be several years before bitcoin transitions from being an emerging store of value to being stable and a medium of exchange and unit of account, and that path is fraught with risk and uncertainty. But the pursuit is important: the one mention of “currency” in the Catechism, in paragraph 2431 on the Seventh Commandment (Thou shalt not steal), demands a stable currency.

In the next video, we’ll learn seven desirable properties in money to evaluate various forms of it throughout history.

Have feedback to improve this part of the course? Submit it anonymously here.

The next part of the course will be released later this week.

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Tras esta exploración acerca de la necesidad del dinero, vamos a enfocarnos en la pregunta clave: ¿Qué es el dinero?

Ve a buscar un sugus o un caramelo. Si no tienes uno, puedes utilizar algún pequeño objeto que tengas cerca y hacer como que es un caramelo. Ponlo frente a ti.

• Que levante la mano quien estaría dispuesto a cambiar su caramelo por un billete de 1 dollar estadounidense.

• Ahora, manténla levantada si aún estarías dispuesto a cambiar tu caramelo por un billete de 1 dólar, pero del Monopoly. Ya puedes bajar la mano

• ¿Por qué sí o por qué no?

• ¿Qué hace que un billete sea tan deseable y otro prácticamente no tenga valor?

¿Te has preguntado qué hace que el dinero sea… bueno, dinero? La mayoría de nosotros sabemos cómo usarlo, pero no terminamos de entender de dónde viene o cómo funciona.

La función del dinero más conocida es que es una forma de intercambiar bienes y servicios; el dinero representa el valor de estos elementos de forma que los podemos intercambiar más fácilmente. El valor de este dinero va más allá de sus propiedades físicas, como el papel en el que está impreso.

Para un momento y tómate unos minutos para reflexionar sobre estas citas.

El dinero tiene formas diferentes: puede tener forma de billete, de moneda o de pago electrónico. Los gobiernos u otras autoridades internacionales son los que normalmente lo emiten y controlan, pero el dinero es mucho más que solo un medio físico o digital de intercambio; digamos que es como un lenguaje universal que nos permite comerciar con personas de todo el mundo, aun sin hablar el mismo idioma o ser de culturas diferentes. Por ejemplo, puedes estar a la otra punta del mundo y “hablar dinero”. Tu colocas un producto en la caja y puedes cambiarlo por la moneda local, ya sea física o usando una tarjeta de crédito. Pero si no tienes tu tarjeta o la moneda correcta, no puedes intercambiar valor.

El dinero nos permite realizar intercambios sin tener que depender del trueque, es decir, intercambiar bienes o servicios directamente. Para ello necesitamos alguien que quiera lo que yo ofrezco.

Como señaló el economista francés Jean-Baptiste Say: “El dinero no es más que el agente de la transferencia de valores.” En otras palabras, el dinero en sí mismo no tiene el poder de satisfacer necesidades humanas; es una herramienta para ayudarnos a intercambiar una cosa por otra.

Hay muchos tipos diferentes de transacciones, desde intercambios simples (como comprar un sándwich en una cafetería o un libro en la librería) hasta transacciones financieras más complejas (como comprar una casa o invertir en acciones o bonos).

Una enseñanza resumida del Papa León XIII en su encíclica Rerum Novarum: la compra y venta de bienes, facilitada por el dinero, es una actividad natural del hombre cuando se lleva a cabo con justicia. ¿Y cómo ocurre esa compra y venta?

En resumen, la mayoría de personas entienden que el dinero facilita el comercio porque todos lo aceptan como pago final. Y por qué? Porque tiene valor más allá de sus propiedades físicas. Más tarde, aprenderemos de dónde proviene este valor.

Es importante señalar que este curso no profundiza en lo que significa ‘recto uso del dinero’ en la enseñanza del Papa León XIII. Rerum Novarum proporciona principios sobre cómo una sociedad justa produce, distribuye y consume bienes y servicios. Por ejemplo:

• Acuerdos justos: Enfatizando la importancia de contratos justos entre trabajador y empleador, respetando la dignidad de ambas partes.

• Uso responsable de la propiedad: Destacando que la posesión de bienes conlleva el deber de ayudar a otros, y que los empleados deben respetar la propiedad de sus empleadores.

Este curso, sin embargo, aborda: ¿Qué es el dinero? Y luego, ¿qué es un buen sistema monetario? Estas son partes aparentemente pequeñas de una vasta economía, pero debido a que el dinero se usa con tanta frecuencia, la calidad de nuestro dinero impacta cuán bien podemos vivir la economía cristiana justa a la que el Papa León XIII nos llama.

En el siguiente video, veremos con más detalle las funciones del dinero.

Pon a prueba tu comprensión

1. Verdadero o Falso: El valor del dinero se basa únicamente en sus propiedades físicas, como es el papel en el que está impreso.

2. Completar el espacio en blanco: El video afirma que el dinero nos permite realizar intercambios sin depender del ___________, que es intercambiar un bien por otro.

3. Opción múltiple: Según el video, ¿cuál es la función más conocida del dinero?

   1. Acumular riqueza por sí misma.

   2. Facilitar el comercio al actuar como medio de intercambio.

   3. Controlar gobiernos y economías.

   4. Reemplazar la necesidad de bienes físicos.

Respuestas aquí.

Links:

• Papa León XIII: Rerum Novarum (enseñanza resumida en el párrafo 22)

¿Tienes comentarios para mejorar esta parte del curso? Envíalos de forma anónima aquí.

La siguiente parte del curso se publicará el miércoles 2 de abril de 2025.

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Building upon our exploration of the necessity of money, let’s start to explore the core question: What is money?

Go grab a piece of candy. If you don’t have one, grab some small object near you and pretend it is a piece of candy. Place it in front of you.

• Who would be willing to trade their candy for a US$1 bill? Raise your hand if so.

• Now, keep your hands up if you would still be willing to trade your candy for a $1 monopoly bill instead of your piece of candy.

• Why or why not?

• What makes one bill so desirable and another one basically valueless?

Do you ever wonder what makes money… well, money? Most of us know how to use it, but not many of us understand where it comes from or how it works.

The most understood function of money is that it is a way to exchange goods and services. It represents the value of these items in a form that can be easily traded. This value goes beyond physical properties, like the paper it's printed on.

Take a moment to reflect on the quotes here.

Money can take many different forms, such as paper notes, metal coins, and electronic payments. Governments or other authorities typically issue and control money, but money is so much more than just a physical or digital medium of exchange; it’s like a universal language that allows us to trade with people all around the world, even if we don’t speak the same language or have the same culture. For example, you can be on the other side of the world and still “speak” money by placing a product on the counter and exchanging it for the local currency or using a credit card. But if you don’t have your card or the right currency, you can’t exchange value.

Money allows us to make exchanges without having to rely on bartering, that is trading items or services directly, which requires finding someone who wants what we have to offer.

As French economist Jean-Baptiste Say pointed out, “Money is but the agent of the transfer of values.” In other words, money itself doesn’t have the power to satisfy human wants; it is a tool to help us to trade one thing for another.

There are many different types of transactions, ranging from simple exchanges (such as buying a sandwich at a deli or a book at a bookstore) to more complex financial transactions (such as buying a house or investing in stocks or bonds).

A summarized teaching from Pope Leo XII in his encyclical Rerum Novarum: the buying and selling of goods, which is facilitated by money, is a natural activity of man when conducted with justice. And how does that buying and selling happen?

In summary, most people understand that money facilitates trade, as it’s universally accepted as final payment. And why? Because it has value beyond its physical properties. Later, we’ll learn where this value comes from.

Note that this course does not delve into what “buying and selling with justice” means in Pope Leo XIII’s teaching. Rerum Novarum provides principles for how a just society produces, distributes, and consumes goods and services. For example:

• Fair agreements: Emphasizing the importance of just contracts between worker and employer, respecting the dignity of both parties.

• Use property responsibly: Highlighting that owning things comes with a duty to help others, and that employees should respect employers’ property.

This course, however, addresses, “What is money?” and then, “What is a good money system?” These are seemingly small parts of a vast economy, but because money is so often used, the quality of our money impacts how well we can live the just Christian economy Pope Leo XIII calls us to.

In the next video, we’ll look in more detail at the functions of money.

Test your understanding

1. True or False: The value of money is solely based on its physical properties, like the paper it’s printed on.

2. Fill in the Blank: The video states that money allows us to make exchanges without relying on ___________, which is trading goods directly for other goods.

3. Multiple Choice: According to the video, what is the most known function of money?

   1. To accumulate wealth for its own sake.

   2. To facilitate trade by acting as a medium of exchange.

   3. To control governments and economies.

   4. To replace the need for physical goods.

Answers here.

Links:

• Pope Leo XIII: Rerum Novarum (summarized teaching in paragraph 22)

Have feedback to improve this part of the course? Submit it anonymously here.

Read this post in Spanish here.

The next part of the course will be released on Wednesday, April 2, 2025.

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En esta parte exploraremos el papel del dinero en nuestras vidas.

Como te dije coge papel y boli o abre tu aplicación de notas y responde estas cinco preguntas. ¡Puedes responder con ejemplos prácticos, cómo comprar comida para la primera pregunta, o con respuestas más filosóficas, como prefieras!

• ¿Por qué necesitamos dinero?

• ¿Qué es el dinero?

• ¿Quién lo controla?

• ¿Qué le da ‘valor’ al dinero?

• ¿Tienes alguna pregunta sobre el dinero?

Cuando termines, comparte tus respuestas en los comentarios y ‘like’ las que más te gusten. Tómate tu tiempo para reflexionar sobre lo que tú has escrito y lo más votado; esto puede o no coincidir, lo que es seguro es que este ejercicio te será muy útil.

Gracias a él comenzarás a tener una comprensión más clara del dinero, y durante los próximas publicaciones iremos profundizando todavía más. Guarda bien estas respuestas porque volveremos sobre ellas al final del curso.

La cita es Friedrich Hayek. El Papa San Juan Pablo II reconoció a Hayek como uno de los eruditos católicos más importantes del siglo XX, aunque el austriaco había dejado de practicar su fe hacía mucho tiempo. En 1980, Hayek fue uno de los doce premios Nobel invitados a reunirse con el papa polaco, lo cual influiría posteriormente en las encíclicas del papa y en el Catecismo de 1992.

Prepárate para el curso—responde estas cinco preguntas

• ¿Por qué necesitamos dinero?

• ¿Qué es el dinero?

• ¿Quién lo controla?

• ¿Qué le da ‘valor’ al dinero?

• ¿Tienes alguna pregunta sobre el dinero?

Leave a comment

¿Tienes comentarios para mejorar esta parte del curso? Envíalos de forma anónima aquí.

La siguiente parte del curso se publicará el miércoles 26 de marzo de 2025.

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In this post we’ll explore money’s role in our lives.

Take a pen and paper, or a notepad app on your device, and answer these five questions. You can answer with practical examples, like buying food for the first question, or more philosophical answers, as you wish!

• Why do we need money?

• What is money?

• Who controls money?

• What gives money its “value”?

• What question do you have about money?

When you’re done, share your answers in the comments, and click ‘like’ on your favourites. Reflect on your unique ideas that didn’t match the top voted ones—these are good and useful!

After this exercise, you’ll have a clearer understanding of money, and in the next posts we’ll dive deeper. Keep these answers because we’ll reflect on them at the end of the course.

The quote up top is from Friedrich Hayek. Pope St. John Paul II recognized Hayek as one of the most important Catholic scholars of the twentieth century, though the Austrian had long ceased to practice his faith. In 1980, Hayek was one of twelve Nobel laureates invited to meet with the pope, which would inform the pope’s encyclicals and the 1992 Catechism.

Prepare for the course—answer these five questions

• Why do we need money?

• What is money?

• Who controls money?

• What gives money its “value”?

• What question do you have about money?

Leave a comment

Have feedback to improve this part of the course? Submit it anonymously here.

Read this post in Spanish here.

The next part of the course will be released on Wednesday, March 26, 2025.

Subscribe now

¡Bienvenido a nuestro curso! Aquí encontrarás el texto en español del video en inglés. Publicaremos una lección cada miércoles durante 12 semanas. ¡Que disfrutes!

¡Hola! Soy David. Qué alegría que estés aquí para nuestro curso de una hora de Introducción al Bitcoin desde la Fe. En este curso, aprenderás el pasado, presente y futuro del dinero en el contexto de la Biblia, el Catecismo y economistas y teólogos católicos.

Soy profesor especializado en ingeniería y economía. Para comenzar, empecemos con una oración. Esta la aprendí gracias al sacerdote que me impartió la catequesis.

En el nombre del Padre, del Hijo y del Espíritu Santo.

Ven, Espíritu Santo, llena los corazones de tus fieles y enciende en ellos el fuego de tu amor. Envía, Señor, tu Espíritu. Y renueva la faz de la Tierra.

Oremos: Oh Dios, que llenas los corazones de tus fieles con la luz del Espíritu Santo; concédenos que, guiados por el mismo Espíritu, sintamos con rectitud y gocemos siempre de tu consuelo. Por Jesucristo Nuestro Señor. Amén.

Estamos aquí para estudiar qué es Bitcoin, pero antes es necesario comprender la historia del dinero y el sistema financiero actual. Esta base nos ayudará a entender el origen tan característico del Bitcoin y todo el potencial que tiene siempre desde el respeto a la dignidad del hombre y del bien común. Esto es clave para entender la importancia de esta nueva propuesta de dinero.

Este curso es una adaptación del diploma de código abierto de Mi Primer Bitcoin, con el que se han graduado más de 30.000 personas en El Salvador y más de 30 países. Así que ¡Gracias por todo el trabajo!

A continuación, quiero presentaros a tres personas católicas que han influido enormemente en esta misión.

En julio del 2024, en Nashville, conocimos al Dr. Guido Hülsmann durante una conferencia que se llama: Thank God for Bitcoin. Jörg es un reconocido economista alemán, famoso por su libro: La ética de la producción del dinero. Él era el ponente principal, y al final, compré su libro sobre la caridad y pude hablar con él.

Don Jesús Huerta de Soto es un importante economista, abogado y empresario español, catedrático en la Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. El Dr. Hülsmann me dijo que él enseña allí. Mi compañera le envió Don Jesús un correo y, para nuestra sorpresa, ¡respondió!

Accedió generosamente a recibirnos en su despacho donde pudimos hablar detalladamente sobre este proyecto. Lo mejor de todo fue que nos invitó a una de sus clases y nos regaló ocho libros. Gracias a estos libros, este curso es mejor.

Por último, en noviembre del 2024 viajamos a El Salvador para un retiro organizado por Catholic Bitcoiners. Allí tuvimos la suerte de conocer a Pierre Rochard. Pierre es conocido por ser uno de los primeros en publicar acerca de Bitcoin y por ayudar a liderar empresas en el mundo del Bitcoin. Pierre, a través de sus redes sociales, difundió el evento y así nos enteramos. Su admirable liderazgo en la comunidad también nos ha inspirado mucho en esta misión.

Ellos tres se adhieren a la escuela austríaca de economía. Cuyos orígenes se encuentran en la España católica del siglo dieciséis, más concretamente en la Escuela de Salamanca, y la Austria católica del siglo diecinueve. Aquí podemos ver dos líderes claros de estas escuelas: A la izquierda: Martín de Azpilcueta, sacerdote experto en derecho canónico y economista navarro, que sentó las bases para este curso en 1556. A la derecha tenemos al austríaco Carl Menger, conocido como el fundador de la escuela austriaca, gracias a la publicación en 1871 de su libro: Principios de economía política.

Mi experiencia en economía y en el mundo de la enseñanza, combinada con mi fe, es la base de este curso.

Esta mezcla nos ayudó a conectar con Don Jesús. Mi compañera le escribió mencionando mi conversión gracias a la profundización mientras estudiaba Bitcoin.

En la primera parte del curso, estudiaremos el dinero. En la segunda, Bitcoin. Todo a la luz de la Fe.

Te recomendamos que confíes en el proceso. Poco a poco irás adquiriendo una comprensión más profunda de todo esto de la mano de tu instinto moral. Cuando empieces a ver los frutos, te darás cuenta de que ha valido la pena.

Coge papel y boli porque vienen unas preguntas…

Enlaces:

• Cuenta de Pierre Rochard en X, y su apostolado CatholicBitcoin

• Sitio web de Don Jesús Huerta de Soto

• Publicaciones del Dr. Jörg Guido Hülsmann

• Sitio web de Mi Primer Bitcoin (Español)

¿Tienes comentarios para mejorar esta parte del curso? Envíalos de forma anónima aquí.

Las preguntas mencionadas al final del post serán publicadas cuando publicaremos la siguiente parte del curso la próxima semana, el miércoles 19 de marzo de 2025.

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Hey! This is David. Glad to have you here for our one-hour Introduction to Bitcoin in the Faith course. In this course, you’ll learn the past, present, and future of money in the context of the Bible, the Catechism, and Catholic economists and theologians.

I’m a teacher, and I’ve studied economics and engineering. Let’s start with a prayer. The priest who catechized me always began his classes with this prayer.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

COME, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and kindle in them the fire of Thy love. Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created. And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth. Amen.

Let us pray: O GOD, Who taught the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant that, by the gift of the same Spirit, we may be always truly wise, and ever rejoice in His consolation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

We’re here to study Bitcoin, but first, we need a grasp of money’s history and the current financial system. This foundation helps us understand Bitcoin’s unique nature and its potential, viewed through human dignity and the common good. Without it, Bitcoin’s significance might be hard to grasp.

This course adapts My First Bitcoin’s open-source diploma, used by over 30,000 graduates in El Salvador and 30+ countries. We’re grateful for their work!

Next, I’d like to introduce three Catholics who’ve aided our mission.

We met Dr. Guido Hülsmann at the ‘Thank God for Bitcoin’ conference in Nashville, July 2024. He’s an economist known for The Ethics of Money Production. He was the conference headliner and we chatted as I bought his latest book on charity.

We met Don Jesús Huerta de Soto through email. He is a respected economist and businessman in Madrid, and Dr. Hülsmann told me that he teaches there. I asked my Spanish teammate to email Don Jesús and ask if he would offer us guidance. He responded! He generously hosted us for a meeting and his evening lecture, and gifted us eight books. These books have made this course better.

Finally, we met Pierre Rochard at the Catholic Bitcoiners retreat in El Salvador in November 2024. Pierre is known for his early Bitcoin articles and helping lead Bitcoin companies. Pierre used his platform to spread the news of the event, and his leadership in the community emboldens our mission.

These three men follow the Austrian school of economics, with origins in 1500s Catholic Spain, more concretely in the School of Salamanca, and 1800s Catholic Austria. These two men here, leaders of the movement. First, Martín de Azpilcueta from Navarre, a priest, church law expert, and economist that laid the groundwork for this very course in 1556. And second, the Austrian Carl Menger, the founder of the Austrian school, who wrote his Principles of Economics in Vienna in 1871.

My background in teaching and economics, combined with my faith, is the foundation for this course.

This helped us connect with Don Jesús. My teammate wrote to him of my conversion studying Bitcoin.

In this course, you’ll learn about money in the first half, then get practical with Bitcoin in the second, all in the context of the Faith.

Trust the process—the reward of a deeper understanding, informed by your intuitive sense of morality, will be worth it.

Let’s continue with some questions for you.

Links:

• Pierre Rochard’s account on X, and his apostolate CatholicBitcoin

• Don Jesús Huerta de Soto’s website

• Dr. Jörg Guido Hülsmann’s publications

• My First Bitcoin’s website

Have feedback to improve this part of the course? Submit it anonymously here.

Read this post in Spanish here.

The questions mentioned at the end of the video will be released when we launch the next part of the course next week, on Wednesday, March 19th, 2025.

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These past weeks we’ve been working hard on our one-hour intro course: Introduction to Bitcoin in the Faith. It is the flagship effort of our mission: teaching Bitcoin from a Catholic perspective.

We’ve made great progress!

• Drafted a blueprint of our slide deck

• Wrote scripts for videos 1-3 (on money) and videos 7-8 (on Bitcoin)

• Prepared polished slides for videos 1-3

• Planned our soft launch schedule—one post a week for twelve weeks, starting next week

My teammate Rocío (right, in the title image) artfully crafted the polished slides, as well as this post’s image.

We’ve also paid the one-time Substack fee to host this site on our own domain—ngumissions.com is official!

I’ll be recording the first audio this week, and then we go live on Wednesday, March 12th, God willing. Keep an eye out! We’re excited to share with you how the Spirit has been working through us.

Christopher West on our community on Pints

Speaking of the Spirit, one inspiration last week was Christopher West’s appearance on Pints with Aquinas. He described his experience teaching Theology of the Body to leaders of Hakuna, an international Catholic community, and then attending their 17,000-person concert in Madrid last September. Rocío sent the Pints clip to me as we’re both involved in the Hakuna community. A quote from Christopher:

Christopher West - I was in Madrid in September. Do you know about the group Hakuna?

Matt Fradd - No.

CW - There is something to have your eye on and be aware of. The Holy Spirit is doing something. They are going through various growing pains. Hakuna it comes from Hakuna Matata, from the Disney movie.

MF - Yeah, yeah ... means no worries.

CW - Yeah, it means no worries. They just started gathering and singing songs and praising the Lord.

MF - Okay.

CW - And I went to an event in a stadium in Madrid that held 17,000 people.

MF - What?

CW - And it was just this Hakuna Music Group on stage singing these songs and I’m like: what! It must be the lyrics because I couldn’t understand, it was all in Spanish. Everybody singing along! 17k people in the stadium! They had all these fireworks going off on stage, it was quite like… something’s moving, something is happening through what they are doing.

MF - Is it a Catholic group?

CW - Yeah, yeah. Is Catholic, fully Catholic. Started by a Catholic priest and he’s gathered some people around him who are discerning giving their lives to this and living a celibate life in service of this movement. And they are working under the bishop, they have all the right canonical approvals. But they are going through growing pains like it’s really sprouted very quickly and it’s international.

MF - Whoa!

CW - Their music is selling like, it’s bestselling stuff … Mike Mangione from my team, who’s my musician who travels with me, he was with me and we’ve just been … wow, the Lord is doing something.

An English speaker’s experience with Hakuna

By God’s grace (and I needed it), I am one of a handful of native English-speaking charism followers who have attended multiple Hakuna formation events. The Lord placed them in my path in Guadalajara, Mexico, through a post-TLM barbecue in February 2023. A now close friend invited me to one of their young adult talks and Holy Hour Wednesdays. I lived in the city for four months.

Hakuna is an international group, but as Christopher notes, it is currently predominantly Spanish-speaking, with a strong presence in Spain and Hispanic America. At the Europe “All Meeting” in Rome last October, I was told that the movement has translated more successfully into Italian than Portuguese… not much into English. Founded in 2013, Christopher observes that the community is experiencing “growing pains” (true!). And indeed, there are young folks discerning celibate life, or who have already discerned and begun; I’ve met them!

Ro an early Hakuna member

Rocío—the slides and thumbnail creator mentioned above—has been part of Hakuna since its early days in Spain and is now helping guide a new local chapter in Mexico City. She’s a missionary, working part-time for NGU Missions here, and contributing immensely! We met at an annual Hakuna conference in Mexico City in March 2024.

Introducing: Innocent Fools - On Hakuna in English

Continuing the mezcla of these missions—I added the translated charism decalogue to my X bio in early February—I have launched a new Substack publication called Innocent Fools - On Hakuna in English. I will share my experiences with the Hakuna community and charism there, periodically. Ro will oversee for truth and insights of the community’s early days they claim to be founded by the Holy Spirit, and write God willing. :)

Innocent Fools - On Hakuna in English

Hakuna is an international Catholic movement founded in 2013. Learn about the "Eucharistic family...that knows no frontiers or languages, as its centre is God himself" in English.

By David Venturi

What you can expect there

The first post is a piece I wrote for NGU Missions in 2024 about a Hakuna silent retreat I attended to discern the charism, and the second is this post. Upcoming, you can learn about:

• The full audio and text snippets of Christopher West on Pints with Aquinas, plus an earlier video from Christopher West a day after the concert

• The origin of the name Hakuna (everyone asks this first)

• A recap of the upcoming Hakuna All Meeting in March 2025 in Mexico City, including a Mass and Holy Hour at the foot of Tepeyac Hill

Invitation to Christopher or Matt: new missions in the Church

Hakuna’s simple layperson decalogue and their music have been a significant part of my deepening conversion, a conversion that was “kicked off” by studying the Bible with Bitcoin enthusiasts. Maybe the Lord wishes to accomplish two birds with one stone here (do Christians say that?)… I extend an open invitation to Dr. Christopher West or to chat about our missions at some point—Hakuna and Bitcoin! Qué combinación!

We have some prominent figures involved in the Bitcoin mission, whose names will be announced later, so stay tuned. It will be much easier to recommend once the course and that news are live!

Back to work on the course now. God bless!

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Page 1

Dear Lord,

Perhaps we are meant to have take care of this car 33-year old wine red Toyota. But I’m not sure.

Last night we I had dinner w/ C + A, C and A. C + A first baby due in 4 months. They - she - seems stressed about selling the car and doing it service. It was her Dad’s car - he passed last year. Her brother posted a funny ad probably overselling it w/ a high price and she posted another more precise, probably underselling it and a low price. The meaning of this 1992 Toyota for her Dad, his family. Our birth year as you know! C + I went to Junior Kindergarten together!

It’s a 1992 Toyota Hilux 4Runner, imported from Japan, right hand drive. We came back from games night… one sec, here’s a photo!

[box for photo of us]

We took this to send to our other classmate who just had their first baby 6 months ago! Why did he come up? I don’t remember!

We came back from the arcade night and I fell asleep on the couch at 1230. I woke up at 230 or 330 … and this thought idea was there waiting for me: I can buy this car. You’ve blessed me with the savings and though I told them Uncle Gary could work on it in his retirement, maybe it’s for Dad who is looking searching for purpose in his upcoming retirement he keeps ruminating, pondering, fighting. Dad + I don’t know cars… and I should if I’m meant to be the married man of the house one day! I can’t change a tire and don’t know an exhaust pipe from a wiper fluid one.

Back side of page 1

I couldn’t sleep after that thought again, for third night in a row an exciting mission related thought kept playing, refining itself in my head. How might I write communicate this? The lights at the arcade were bright, and the electromagnetic field. Stephen and our Twitter friends alerted me too…. maybe I have a sensitivity + the anxiety is part that + not all borderline superstition / OCD line I told Father I wasn’t sure should confess last Sunday. Anyway, that unexpected discovery this week seems like you! … but I digress… I couldn’t sleep. I wrote something like this thought in my mind:

— “Hey A, nice seeing you last night. You can tell C we’ll buy the her Dad’s car for the $X-Yk you wanted. Just pending a run by our family friend mechanic. If he says it’s worth more we’ll give you that too. And one more thing!
Just don’t sell it yet today :D … We’ll chat this week if that sounds good to you guys.

Sorry one sec, Dad just walked into the kitchen to cut chicken and I picked up the candle to leave for quiet + burnt my hand

[photo]

Perhaps we can use bitcoin. We’ll give them [number]k in CAD and 1 million sats, Yk. Or what about [number]k, [number]k. Dad I and split it [number]k [number]k, [number]k in sats. No, 1 million sats for all our missions seems nice. It’s not going too much + we can spread the education more even if we do get outside funding/benefactors!

But will they like bitcoin? [number]k seems too much. Maybe I’ll just start w/ playing basketball w/ A + getting to know them better.

But the car + the thought! I can’t sleep! Haha!

Page 2

[number]k, [number]k (1 million) seems nice. I’ll get A’s number and text him when I wake up. Even though it’s Sunday… tho doesn’t feel that much like work.

But I woke up and went on the forest walk — how beautiful the fresh snow — and felt no! I shouldn’t. Even though the car may “get away” w/ the potential buyer they had coming to see it today. Oh yeah… just looked back at desc… it’s a diesel baby! In past times I would force this to not lose it. It would be my will that way it seems. Letting go control of the outcomes is hard. →

( I looked at what the car looked like on Google after doing my examination of conscience after the walk. I didn’t “get excited.” It’s not flashy… not sure I thought it would be. It reminds me of Fr. Michael’s old red camry. I also found the brother’s ad they were teasing. LOL! ♡ It’s actually great, [illegible] to sell it that way [number]k build up the story! [embed story text?])

→ But now, the right that to do is wait today! I asked C for A’s number. Good.

If you want us to take care of this car, and take a spiritual emotional load off C + family, she can drive it if she wants if we buy it, if you want us to have it, it will be there tmrw. How nice + can trust You with small things like this! Mission 3 it’d be.

Or maybe nothing. Would be a lot of work to sell our car for garage space …

Back of page 2

… C’s Dad didn’t keep it in the snow. It doesn’t start in the cold they said iirc. Maybe I focus more on pure BTC mission… Helping C + A seems lovely though!

I’ll text them tmrw “Hey A, it’s DJ. Nice hanging last night.”
“Did you end up selling the car How did the car showing go yesterday?

One sec Dad asking me a q about an exorcism movie (Fr. Ignazio)

Okay. “How did it go?”

Then if it’s there still maybe we’ll buy it. It’d be nice if 10% btc of the Yk can go up to X-Yk again in 5 years, 10 years or something. Right, we’ll put a holding period on it in the buy offer! This is a hidden mix of charity, maybe Jack will say it is worth Xk but we can give the sats still!

“Why are you writing in the dark for?” -Dad
“You’re like a monk!”

Not sure if we can run an official foundation like this mixing in donations with old Toyotas. But this feels prudent + nice!

Maybe it won’t be there tmrw. I enjoyed writing You this under 4 candles, 2 blown out (blessed), 2 regular I think. I would love to rest tonight! I didn’t do any, much screens today so perhaps that is it … part of it!
See you tomorrow.

Love, David (do I write “Love”? …seems kind of cringe but I do! Choice — Love = will good of other = do Your Will! Bye!

02.02.25.

Crawling down the side of the page in blue pen

Also Meant to write this somewhere… How fitting might it be for my 33rd birthday!

P.S. Oh yeah, forgot. I wonder if C’s Dad is Catholic. Polish! Please pray from him and for C + A + baby on the way! We went to St. high school, grade schools!

On a purple post it in black pen

Is it a sin to publish this If I write it on a Sunday + took pictures … knowing it might be … probably will be published. But I was in “the zone” … wrote Dear Lord second line. Is this scrupulosity, OCD? Ask: friends or priest.

On same purpose post it crawling around edges in blue pen

…I can feel some of the anxiety / shortness of breath /rumination coming on. Stop in tracks. Brain Lock process. Ye Cloud… restless → rosary —> What a gift!!

On back of same post it in blue pen

good approved book?
__________________

Stop.

Recognize — obsessive thoughts

R———: Chemical imbalance. Original sin… my Cross

Refocus: The Sanctifier

↓

Revalue later (tmrw?)

I will not come back to this paper.

Post update (Monday, March 3, 2025):

• On the truck: the last photo in the first gallery above says the car showing to the buyer they had arranged went well, and that they’re negotiating a price. So no truck purchase on my part.

• For those struggling with obsessive thoughts: A kind subscriber friend checked in on me after he read this post. Here’s a message I wrote to him, that I write here to warn readers who struggle with similar: “The best way to address [obsessive thoughts for me] seems to be prevention, so limited phone and computer and screen time. It appears to be a mix of physical (blue light, electromagnetic waves, long periods of mental work) and emotional (social media) or something.” A few days after I penned these four pages above, I got quite sick for a week. The Lord suggested I pause, and I chose to avoid work and device time for days. Very quickly, I slept through the night and the obsessive thoughts went away. Since getting healthy again, if I moderate work and device time during the day, and I shut off the computer before sunset, I have not had problems sleeping and — there was one day I thought I could “cheat” and work until 9 PM, but I slept poorly that night and the next day was harder physically, emotionally, spiritually. Take heed of my errors and sins against moderation! Posting on short-form social media (predominantly X) I’ve kept cut out even now healthy, so possibly a contributing factor for me as well.

This week updates:

• X bio updated - made a website to show the simple decalogue of the lay person charism I’ve been following, intention to get the Sacraments primacy

• Outline of 1-hour “Introduction to Bitcoin in the Faith” (title not finalized) done this week

• Most viewed X post - this interaction with a Jack Dorsey post about thinking, which helped generated 14 profile visits that day

Have a nice weekend friends. God Bless. If you can, please pray for the two couples at the top, including the little one on the way, and me in my struggles here.

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San Antonio-based, Freedom Coaching helps men and women break their attraction to pornography and unchaste behavior. Here’s how the multi-year, 1-million satoshi donation process went down.

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Connection request

Sep 5, 2024 - 1 BTC = 56,000 USD

My friend Saul is a Freedom Coach:

He sent me this message early September:

Hey, I’d like to connect you with our founder who would love to share with you about our vision, mission, and some of the amazing things that God is doing through this work. Would you be open to me introducing you to him via email so the two of you set up a time to talk?

He is fundraising. People who are not able to pay for the service get scholarships from donors

Donating wasn’t explicitly part of our mission yet, so I am not sure if Saul’s experience of us discussing Bitcoin and economics is related to his idea to make the connection, same for the later yes from Freedom Coaching’s founder.

I say cool, the founder (Steve) and I get connected, and schedule a call.

The call

Sep 11, 2024 - 1 BTC = 57,000 USD

The call happens a week later. Steve has prepared a Google Meet presentation, about an hour long. I ask questions along the way. The two main questions:

• Main “competitors” in market

• Where does the money go?

My non-edited notes:

• Catholic competitors - Reclaim Sexuality (not 1:1 meetings, not live), Matt Fradd’s course and community

• Where does money go? Do you hold savings. Vast majority of donations goes to clients. But also goes to podcasts. And training. It is 503c charity - founder runs it, there are board members as well. Also funding website, everything etc. Pooled account. Goes into a chequing account. Sounds like spent monthly, no nest egg.

Call ends. He gave support options:

• Financial

• Prayer

• Spread word - priests, friends, people who have connections that care about this

Steve asked for a specific donation number, a strategy I recognize from my entrepreneurship coach - good to encourage action. I said I’ll sleep and pray on these decisions at the moment (bitcoin process clarifying especially) and that I’ll have an answer for him end of next week latest.

The offer

Sep 20, 2024 - 1 BTC = 64,000 USD

With regards to the mission, I was convinced the morning after. I just wasn’t sure the proportion of bitcoin vs. USD, and the total amount, as he asked for a specific amount we hadn’t donated in that size yet.

I choose 1 million satoshis total value ($640 USD at the time of my email to Steve below): 50% in US dollars now, then 50% in bitcoin a year from now.

I send the offer email:

Recap:

• $320 USD today

• 500,000 satoshis a year from today, at whatever USD value that may be

Acceptance and first donation

Sep 23, 2024 - 1 BTC = 63,000 USD

Steve accepts on the weekend. He sends me the donation link.

I make the $320 donation via credit card the next business day.

Lessons

Oct 17, 2024 - 1 BTC = 68,000 USD

In the first mission we funded, we agreed that I’d help our recipient—a Gen Z campus missionary—set up a wallet and that I’d send him the actual bitcoin. Then he’d sell the bitcoin later to pay for his mission expenses. But we didn’t end up doing it. Three main reasons:

• Donation size (400,000 satoshis, so fluctuating between $200-$300 dollars around time of donation and months afterward)

• Holding period (he was only holding for 4-8 months)

• His schedule is full

We learned from that, so for a similar situation like this one with Steve (consider Freedom Coaching’s holding period the time to the promised future donation - one year), we implied that we’ll hold the bitcoin for them.

While the recipient doesn’t:

• Learn about wallets and self-custody

• Experience holding real bitcoin

They do:

• Learn about opportunity cost of holding bitcoin vs. fiat currency

Freedom Coaching became an apostolate!

I got this exciting email in my inbox this week:

Part of our mission at NGU Missions is to discern what are good causes to donate to. The Archdiocese of San Antonio seems to agree on our decision to support! I’ll include the rest of the email and why this status is important at the end of this next section.

Mission two funded

Jan 30, 2025 - 1 BTC = 106,000 USD

In our bitcoin donation strategy for Freedom Coaching, two things were possible because of Bitcoin:

• NGU Missions stores 100% of our funds in bitcoin, so we had money available when we made the donation (our donation pool has increased 82% in USD terms since we started in May 2024)

• We promised a future donation denominated in bitcoin, exposing the recipient to Bitcoin’s NGU Technology—that is, the tendency for bitcoin to increase in value over time—allowing them to fund their future mission expenses with more confidence, and teaching them sound money by experience (I’ve heard through friends that they’re increasing their bitcoin savings on their own volition now)

Bitcoin thus makes funding charities and non-profits more sustainable, while aligning capital stewardship with the Church’s moral teaching on economics. (For the latter, our upcoming course explains why.)

We are grateful God gave us the opportunity to support Freedom Coaching! Please pray for them and for us. If you’d like to connect with Steve and Freedom Coaching, you can reach them through their website.

God bless and have a nice weekend.

- David

Email - HUGE News: Freedom Coaching's Game-Changer!

Written by Steve Pokorny, founder of Freedom Coaching

Hear ye! Hear Ye!

The Archdiocese of San Antonio has formally approved Freedom Coaching Foundation Inc. as an apostolate on a probationary basis! This is a BIG DEAL!

I was freed by the grace of Jesus Christ after over 12 years of living as a slave to pornography and unchaste behavior. In 2011, I heeded God’s call and responded, and thus our mission began.

We have grown from those first days of wandering through the wilderness to putting this puzzle together as God continues to design the pieces.

Check out the miracles God is working through us:

🙌 The creation of Redeemed Vision and Redeeming Our Vision,

🙌 The assembling of a team of 13 Coaches and 3 support staff,

🙌 An amazing Board of Directors who are all in with the growth of this mission,

🙌 Receiving this formal endorsement of the work of Freedom Coaching!

This is the mercy of Jesus Christ and it is truly a marvel. Never in my wildest fantasies did I think my own brokenness could lead to such healing.

To God be the GLORY!

Why is this gracious letter from Auxiliary Bishop Gary Janek so important?

👊 It gives us permission to approach all priests within the Archdiocese of San Antonio.

👊 Priests can have the confidence to entrust Freedom Coaching to serve the broken men and women who approach them with fidelity to the Gospel.

👊 It creates the opportunity to invite clergy to a dialogue, where they are given the opportunity to become familiar with Freedom Coaching, to receive homily pointers, and even see how we can be of service to them for their own healing journey.

👊 It empowers us to approach other dioceses to invite them to approve us to serve their people, thus creating a ripple effect of freedom throughout the Church.

GOD DID THIS! (With a little bit of work from us)

We at Freedom coaching couldn’t have done it without your love, support, and prayers.

We’re just getting warmed up! The iron is hot and it is time to redouble our efforts & go into the deep to proclaim liberty to the captives. May we continue to be faithful to God’s grace and be obedient to where He leads.

We ask for your continued prayer and support, and if a name pops into your mind as someone who I should connect with to cast this vision, please let me know!

Again, from the bottom of my heart, I am truly grateful to God and to you for the good that has been done, but get ready.

Even bigger miracles are on the way.

This is the God of FREEDOM that we serve.

#dayzero

One final update

We are indeed one big Catholic family. The friend who I met Steve through just got married and I just got back from his wedding!

First photo is us with another friend in Mexico fall 2023, a day before they went to a retreat in Colombia, where he’d meet his now wife. Second photo is after the wedding Mass in Colombia, mourning (kidding… celebrating) our friends’ marriage. Please pray for them, and for us solteros as well with our vocation yet confirmed!

And as a reminder, I’m back posting on X (for the third part of our mission) if you wish to follow over there.

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You can follow me at davidventuri if you’re on X. I’ll be sharing:

• Catholic-focused Bitcoin and economics education

• The stories of the charities, non-profits, and families we fund and help save in bitcoin

• My personal witness to the Faith

I’ll update everyone on Substack every two weeks or so, and we’ll host our Catholic Bitcoin courses here (stay subscribed to be the first to access).

X - the archives and the start of my conversion

I’ve written about my conversion here before. But never with time-stamped tweets to annotate the journey. The dates most obvious as “starting points” were in March 2020 discovering Bitcoin, mid-2021 with the example of Christian Bitcoiners on Twitter, then fall 2021 when I encountered the Catholic faith in the Mass and devoted friends while living in Mexico.

The early parts of the conversion are messy, as the great rust of sin remained longer than I would have desired. I did not have the Eucharist or Confession until later, and was not even aware of certain sins. But it’s all there on Twitter. This tweet, in 2020, is a good one, pre-even being aware I was going to fall fully into the hands of Christ a few short years later.

Deepening conversion, encountering roadblocks

This tweet shows how I struggled to separate myself from the suggestions my heavily Protestant atheist agnostic materialist tech American Christian mix my 2100-following feed (no specific order) presented me. Those follows accumulated over almost a decade of a secular life.

Then I stopped

I tweeted this photo in “the soul of Mexico” on Palm Sunday 2023, then a few more scattered thoughts on disparate subjects that month (I was wholly unsure what to write about), then returned home to Toronto after two years living in a Catholic society.

I haven’t tweeted since.

Faith, local, has deepened

The past 21 months have been more quiet, and local. I:

• Attended nine months of Catechism classes around the corner from where I was born, taught by the Fathers of the Toronto Oratory

• Followed a simple decalogue from a Catholic community I encountered in Mexico (including two silent retreats)

• Read Catholic history, theology, philosophy

I lived a sacramental life and the Lord has blessed me with progress in the spiritual life (thank God!). I wanted to delete the old Twitter archives because I see my errors, and can associate the times with specific sin. But it’s staying up, for now at least. I only deleted a handful of tweets, or quote tweets, to protect against scandal.

Mission clearer now, so sharing

I didn’t know what this mission was when I started in May 2024. We produced a mission statement six months later, now a team of two, and today it’s time to get out of pseudo-stealth and share. The Bitcoin community congregates online on X and Nostr, which is why we’re starting there.

How to follow

I’ll be sharing our mission on X:

• Catholic Bitcoin education

• Consulting and funding charities, non-profits, and families

• My day-to-day faith

I know I’ll make many errors, and I would love it if you were there to support us. You can follow here: davidventuri

Unplanned our launch coincides with the week we’re celebrating Christ going public with his mission. I love it!

Chat soon. Lots to update you on.

David

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Updated: January 2025

My team and I are creating a course called Bitcoin and Catholic Social Teaching. In this post, I outline my one-year reading list to enhance my question-answering ability and make the next version of the course even better.

Our goal is to inspire learners to pursue life’s greatest purposes, strengthen their hope, faith, and charity, regardless of their religious affiliation. By teaching sound economic foundations, we aim to build stronger communities focused on eternity.

Please share your book recommendations if you have any.

TL;DR on goals: teach Bitcoin economics. Share truths of the faith.

How long is the study plan?

One year and a bit, to the end of 2025.

Why now?

Bitcoin runs on a four-year cycle, and we’re currently in the year where society tends to take notice again. I anticipate that more of our brothers and sisters struggling with inflation will be open to Bitcoin’s proposed solution.

Who are you?

I’m a professional course creator and curriculum developer. I came back to the faith hanging out with Bitcoiner friends in 2021. I love teaching and I love these subjects.

What’s not in the list?

Here’s my background, so while relevant to the course, you won’t find much in the list on these subjects:

Education

• Bachelor of Science, Process Engineering

• Bachelor of Arts, Economics

• Master of Science, Data Science (self-directed)

Work

• Summer Intern in Private Equity

• Process Intern in Mining

• Economics & Scheduling Intern in Energy

• Curriculum Developer & Writer in Data Science Online Education

• Content Developer in Data Science Online Education

• Curriculum Manager in Data Science Online Education

Bitcoin study

I’ve studied Bitcoin, monetary history, and finance since spring 2020. Not much for these on the list either.

Faith study - main goal

My catechesis was non-existent in 2021. It’s much better now, with self-study, Bible study, and RCIA. It’s the main focus of the list.

The list

Here’s the learning plan so far. A review to accompany each resource.

Austrian economics

Bitcoin has roots in Austrian theory.

• Carl Menger - Principles of Economics (1871) (PROGRESS: 60%)

• Dr. Jesús Huerta de Soto - Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles (4th edition, 2020) (PROGRESS: 5%)

• More Dr. Huerta de Soto books I’ve yet to list here

Spanish econ scholastics

School of Salamanca (16th-17th centuries), a precursor to the Austrian school.

• Look up later - Dr. Jesús Huerta de Soto, an Austrian economics professor in Madrid, gifted us in Nov 2024 a set of books that incorporates the history and teachings of the School of Salamanca. That makes this section moot.

Distributism

When I tell my Catholic friends I’m teaching Bitcoin and econ, more than 3 times now has someone brought up distributism.

• Hilaire Belloc - The Servile State (1912)

• Hilaire Belloc - An Essay on the Restoration of Property (1936)

• Alexander William Salter - The Political Economy of Distributism: Property, Liberty, and the Common Good (2023)

Church and history

Bitcoiners love to interpret history through the lens of money. Many miss the lens of the Church.

• Hilaire Belloc - Europe and the Faith (1920) (DONE)

• G. K. Chesterton - The Everlasting Man (1925)

• Joseph Pearce - The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful (2023)

Other Belloc books

Belloc seems like the guy.

• Hilare Belloc - The Great Heresies (1911)

• Hilare Belloc - Essays of a Catholic (1931)

• Hilare Belloc - The Path to Rome (1902)

Italian / Spanish

Visiting grandparents’ Italy for the first time this fall. Madrid for a Spanish faith community event. El Salvador for a Catholic Bitcoin retreat. Wait to see which to prioritize.

• Speak Abroad Academy - Learn Italian Fast for Adult Beginners (2024) - this book has many errors and now has Amazon reviews that reflect it

• Barbara Bregstein - Complete Spanish Step-by-Step (2016) - focusing on Italian

• Pimsleur - Italian 1

Bitcoin tech

Less savvy on under-the-hood software development than practical Bitcoin tech.

• Sjors Provoost - Bitcoin: A Work in Progress (2022)

Finance

Considering writing CFA level I exam to get the badge of trust. I have a DIY education and real-life experience in most exam areas. 300 hours of study.

• Ethical and Professional Standards

• Quantitative Methods

• Economics

• Financial Statement Analysis

• Corporate Issuers

• Equity Investments

• Fixed Income

• Derivatives

• Alternative Investments

• Portfolio Management and Wealth Planning

When Dr. Huerta de Soto gifted us his books in the Austrian economics section, I told my teammate, “So I’m not taking the CFA.” Too ambitious for this year.

Philosophy

• Not sure - review suggestions in comments

Theology

• Not sure - review suggestions in comments

Bible

• The Word on Fire Bible (Volume I): The Gospels (PROGRESS: 20%)

• The Word on Fire Bible (Volume II): Acts, Letters and Revelation

• The Word on Fire Bible (Volume III): The Pentateuch

Econ encyclicals

• Pope Leo XIII - Rerum Novarum (On the Condition of Labor) (1891)

• Pope Pius XI - Quadragesimo Anno (The Fortieth Year) (1931)

• Pope Paul VI - Populorum Progressio (On the Development of Peoples) (1967)

• Pope John Paul II - Centesimus Annus (On the Hundredth Year) (1991)

• Pope Benedict XVI - Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth) (2009)

• Pope Francis - Laudato si’ (On Care for Our Common Home) (2015)

Others subject areas?

Your suggestions appreciated.

Goals: teach Bitcoin economics. Share truths of the faith.

Course launch - spread the word

Bitcoin & Catholic Social Teaching is a Catholic adaptation of My First Bitcoin’s Diploma that El Salvador has used to graduate 30,000 students. I’ve added insights from the Bible, the Catechism, and Catholic economists. Please send me a message if you’d like to help by providing feedback before it goes live.

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