What Does the Bible Say about Cryptocurrency?
- G. Connor Salter Contributing Writer
- Published Nov 14, 2024
Every few years when a new digital concept or tool comes along, Christians will ask what the Bible directs them to think about it. For example, many Christians currently wonder: what does the Bible say about cryptocurrency?
In case you do not know, cryptocurrency refers to various currencies generated by computer algorithms and shared through online networks. The currency we use daily is produced by governments who hopefully use resources like gold reserves to back its value and enforce its value and usage. Cryptocurrency is completely virtual, its value based on financial guesswork similar to stock options, and the only thing ruling its usage are the computer algorithms that encrypt it so it can be transferred in specific ways. Bitcoin is currently the most famous example of cryptocurrency, but there are many other kinds.
The fact that national treasuries and reserves do not support cryptocurrency makes it exciting and risky. It is exciting because users do not need to rely on banks, which is nice for quick transactions or for users who worry about the economy collapsing. It can be risky because its value rises and falls like stock options, and its lesser regulations mean people can easily use it for dubious activities. Many financial experts worry that as cryptocurrency grows into a second, shadowy economy behind the official one, it will damage industries.
Does the Bible offer us guidance on how we should feel about cryptocurrency?
Does the Bible Say Anything about Cryptocurrency?
Since cryptocurrency was not developed as a concept until the late 1990s, and it wasn’t invented until about a decade later, it is not mentioned in the Bible. The Bible is a collection of texts written thousands of years ago, long before cryptocurrency came along.
However, this does not mean the Bible lacks any information we can apply when talking about cryptocurrency. There are many things the Bible does not talk about explicitly, but it offers principles that affect how we should talk about those things. For example, the Bible does not talk about solar panels but offers a view of creation and caring for creation that encourages us to consider green energy.
Given this point, we need to consider whether the Bible’s guidance about money and Christian responsibility toward money and other resources has insights we can apply to cryptocurrency.
What Does the Bible Say about Money and Other Resources?
The Bible has a lot to say about how we should treat money.
Believe it or not, the Bible does not treat money itself as a bad thing. The phrase “money is the root of all evil” comes from the King James Bible, generally a great translation, but not without its issues. The verse, 1 Timothy 6:10, more accurately says that “love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.” Loving money for its own sake or being consumed with a desire to make money that replaces healthy desires to serve God and care for others is evil. Money itself is a useful commodity.
Since the Bible is concerned about greed, it is unsurprising that it contains passages like Paul talking about learning to be content with a little (Philippians 4:12). However, Paul does not say he tries to always live on nothing: he can live with a lot or a little because God gives him strength. Having ultimate trust in God can enable us to enjoy good things or live without them if they are unavailable.
Jesus even encourages Christians to use money well by building connections with people (Luke 16:8-11). Christians are called to live wisely, and part of living wisely is cultivating resources well to use the resources to build community, serve good causes, and support the church.
These principles tell us that we should not ruthlessly seek wealth to serve ourselves, but we should be open to new ways of making wealth so we can use it for good purposes. Therefore, we can at least be open to using cryptocurrency. It may sound weird, but so do most new forms of revenue when someone invents them.
However, the Bible’s warnings about greed lead to another important point: Christians must live for something more than their own comfort. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:23, the fact that something is permissible does not make it beneficial. We have certain obligations to others that limit what kind of wealth we seek.
What are these obligations?
What Do Christian Obligations Mean for Using Cryptocurrency?
The Bible outlines various obligations that all Christians have to whatever society they live in. Three particular obligations are worth noting here.
First, Christians are called to love others (Matthew 22:39) and do what they can to live at peace with others (Romans 12:18). This means we should avoid using alternative revenues like cryptocurrencies for criminal purposes, or out of arrogant desires to be completely self-reliant. Our faith calls us into relationship (first with Christ, and through him, into redemptive relationships with others), not away from relationship.
Second, Christians are called to respect and obey the government (Romans 13:1-2). One clear example of this respect and obedience is paying taxes: Jesus tells people to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s (Mark 12:17). While Christians have debated at different times in history what it means to respect clearly evil leaders, Christians still aim as much as possible to be good citizens.
Third, Christians are called to consider how creation’s ultimate story affects how they treat creation now. As Kyle Meyaard-Schaap details in Following Jesus in a Warming World, some brands of dispensational theology in the past have argued that we are free to use up the earth’s resources because God will destroy the planet anyway, but this is a skewed eschatology. As Skye Jethani explores in Futureville, the Bible’s descriptions of a “new heaven and new earth” appear to be a resurrected earth, not a completely new one. If God will refine our planet in the last days without destroying it, we live with hope and caution. The good things we do with our planet’s resources (with money, with nature) will become part of a larger project that God will reveal in the last days. The wasteful things we do will be shown when we all give an account of our choices at the white throne judgment. As Francis Schaeffer reminds us in Pollution and the Death of Man, we should steward the planet God told Adam and Eve to care for.
These three principles may not immediately seem connected to cryptocurrency, but they lead to some important cautions about how we use it.
What Should Christians Consider Before Using Cryptocurrency?
There are three key dangers we should consider if we decide to use cryptocurrency or make it a regular part of our financial planning.
First, cryptocurrency’s appeal often stems from how it seems the ultimate way to not rely on anyone else. No banks, no tax obligations, no one telling us what to do to make money. While paying attention to the economy and considering backup plans is wise, we should not build our lives around ways to avoid being a part of society. We are called to love fellow Christians and even non-Christians well. Throughout history, even in horrible times like ancient Rome being sacked, Christians have chosen to help each other and their neighbors when crises arise. We should watch out for any desire to use cryptocurrency to become self-reliant hermits who gloat as the world burns.
Second, cryptocurrency may not be taxable, but we should consider whether that fact motivates us to avoid obligations to keep our institutions running. Not all taxes may be just, but we should be interested in ensuring governments have enough money to run things like libraries, schools, public roads, hospitals, and other services. If we find cryptocurrency has become a way for us to “cheat the system,” or that it clearly damages our institutions, we should avoid it or use it sparingly.
Third, cryptocurrency may not be made of paper or plastic, but it does have an environmental impact that Christians should consider as stewards of creation. As many people know, cryptocurrency is generated by a digital process called crypto mining. Like any work done on a computer, crypto mining uses electricity, which comes from power plants that use natural resources like coal or water. A United Nations report in 2023 established that crypto mining has a huge toll on power plants, generating a larger carbon footprint than many countries. Cryptocurrency may seem better for the environment than burning garbage or strip mining mountains for coal, but this may not be true.
We can take these concerns and discuss them with fellow Christians and trusted advisors as we decide whether to use cryptocurrency. Like any financial concern, we remember to be wise as snakes but shrewd as serpents (Matthew 10:16). We are to be shrewd with money so we can use it well. We are to be innocent of greed, so making money (paper money, plastic money, or digital money) should never dominate us. In all things, we remember our charge to reflect Jesus to the world.
Further Reading:
How Should Christians Respond to Cryptocurrency?
Photo credit: Behnam Norouzi/Unsplash
