Funding the Next Generation of Faith
How a Gen Z campus missionary will use my bitcoin this year (plus our playbook for you to copy)
Sean, a Gen Z missionary at my alma mater, accepted my 20/80 fiat and time-locked bitcoin donation proposal last week to help fund his salary this year.
Here’s the proposal and the yes:
University… Spiritual battleground
I’m a millennial. Life before university in the 2000s was fairly wholesome.
Then I moved to campus at a Canadian university in the 2010s.
I was easy pickings for a secular culture. I did not know the faith of generations of ancestors. I looked to my also secular friends for inspiration and affirmation. I did things I regret:
Renounced God
Alcohol debauchery
Intimacy stupidity single and in a relationship
I thought these things were fine, of course. But they weren’t, and I paid for it that decade with permanent consequences for myself and others.
Pain.
Then, by God’s grace, Bitcoin came along, I opened my eyes to Christ, and I found / the Lord gave me Christian role models.
The spiritual war continues, and it looks like we’re going to win. But it’s not guaranteed. There will be more injuries and casualties. And folks are out there destined to fight on our side.
So my days look like this now (made possible by NGU tech):
Prayer, the Sacraments, studies, and community to backfill decades of spiritual poverty
Be a part-time missionary
Support missionaries
“Bitcoin is not the solution to all our problems. It is the solution to half of our problems. This half is simple. The other half are very complicated. They’ll take a lot of people and energy.” —Michael Saylor, Bitcoin 2024 Keynote
Want beautiful cathedrals? Want a strong community? Want true freedom?
The foundation of that is Christ. Getting your community from where we are today to the faith of your ancestors there will take a lot of people and energy.
Want the kids not to make the mistakes you made?
Perhaps funding people like Sean is part of your calling. If so, here’s the process I followed so you can copy me (and teach your recipient about Bitcoin in the process).
Who are missionaries?
A missionary is someone who is sent to spread the Gospel and serve people in need. Latin missus means “sent.” Who sends them? God. Missionaries prayerfully discern this vocation, sometimes with the help of a spiritual director.
Sean is a missionary with Catholic Christian Outreach (CCO) on the Queen’s University campus in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
CCO sends teams of missionaries to university campuses across the country. From Victoria, BC, to St. John’s, NL we step onto university campuses to seek out those that don’t know Jesus or don’t know him well enough. We believe the university campus is one of the most strategically important places to reach future leaders. Our strategy begins with outreach, where our missionaries build authentic relationships with students and seek opportunities to proclaim the Gospel and invite them into a dynamic relationship with Jesus and his Catholic Church. Our campus staff intentionally journey with students first towards an initial conversion and then towards growth as missionary discipleship through growth in holiness and mission.
How much should I donate?
It depends on the mission to which you donate. In my case, donating to a CCO missionary helps fund their salary for the year. A long-term store of value like bitcoin is useful for Sean because he can:
Hold the asset
Learn about it (with your help)
Benefit from more purchasing power in the future
I donated 20% of local fiat currency (Canadian dollars) and 80% bitcoin. I chose that split because I wanted him to feel supported both now and in the future. The amount you donate is your choice. I prayed and asked my family. Then I picked a round number in satoshis.
Preston’s recipient, on the other hand, had a multi-year time horizon, so he donated 100% in bitcoin. Use your judgment.
When are the key dates?
I met Sean at the campus parish after Sunday Mass when I was visiting for an alumni event last year. That weekend was move in weekend, so the CCO missionaries set up a booth in the Cathedral entrance. We talked and exchanged contact info. We kept touch on Instagram over the year.
Then:
Mid July 2024 he messaged me on Instagram to ask for financial and/or prayer support for his mission this year.
We scheduled a call that happened at the end of July.
I sent him the proposal a week later.
He accepted a day later.
In the future:
We will have a meeting in August to onboard him with a wallet and his sats.
We will have a meeting in four to ten months to convert the sats to spendable local fiat currency.
I set the verbally enforced time lock to four months because four years (one cycle) was not possible and January 2025 is a simple date.
Where is this happening?
Sean is doing his work on campus at my alma mater in Kingston, Ontario. I go back there every year for an alumni event. It’s nice to help a community I have history with and care about. It’s like you get to help a younger version of yourself.
I was in Toronto for the discovery call and the fiat credit card donation. I’m going to the campus next week so maybe we’ll do the bitcoin onboarding in person. I have no idea where I’ll be for the call in 2025.
Why give missionaries bitcoin if they don’t understand it?
Because you know it’s better for their mission. You do this calculation for them (numbers for a $1,000 example):
Assumptions:
The Canadian dollar’s purchasing power depreciates at an average rate of 7% per year now.
Bitcoin’s purchasing power appreciates at an average rate of 55% per year now.
$1,000 in fiat donated today feels like $941.67 ten months from now.
But $800 in BTC and $200 in fiat feels like $1,355 ten months from now.
Whatever happens with the exchange rate, you’ll:
Fund your recipient
Get your recipient (and God-willing, the organization) learning about hard money by holding it and using it
…while not donating your time with a pitch to convert their treasury and hand-holding them. If exchange rate goes down when they need it, you have the opportunity to donate more if you wish.
“If you have the means to make a donation where they’re going to entertain the idea, I think it’s a really powerful way to take on that indirect forced learning of ‘What the heck is this?’ that’s sitting on my balanced sheet.” —Preston Pysh, Thank God for Bitcoin 2022
How do I find an opportunity?
You can go to a parish in your local community — past, present, or future — and talk to the parishioners. There are often multiple missions, charities, devotions, and other initiatives running in each parish.
The key part is going to parish and talking to people. This example started with a hello and a five-minute chat a year ago.
UPDATE: Following up
I met with Sean a week after writing this article at Mass and then at a frosh week “sidewalk sale” where campus clubs advertise for the year. He’s doing a great job. Watching him and the CCO charism in action confirmed my prayer-aided intuition to donate, despite not knowing him that well.
Update
Here’s what else happened this week for me:
Created two chapters for my Bitcoin & Catholic Social Teaching course (an augmented version of Mi Primer Bitcoin’s Diploma for a Catholic audience).
Organized a small dinner with friends to screen 20 minutes of the God Bless Bitcoin movie and 20 minutes of the course.
Visited old friends over lunch and cigars. Met a new friend in a coffee shop while working through my Spanish textbook.
Walked a Seven Church Pilgrimage on August 14 — the eve of the Assumption of Mary. One stop was a Greek Orthodox Cathedral, who were celebrating the Dormition of the Mother of God. Massive turnout of Greek families and everyone was so welcoming to our 50+ Catholic pilgrims.
More soon. God Bless and have a nice week.
hey this is really cool. i mean its good in itself but it got me thinking about how important it is for catholics to be trailblazers with alternative currencies. we are appoaching the end times where we know we won´t be able to access normal money.