Bitcoin's Link to Ancient African Spirituality

Exploring Bitcoin's the conceptual and historical ties to Ifá and other religious systems

Dec 18, 2022

Prologue: Stories Shape Reality
Chapter 1: Ifá’s Origins and Decoding Reality
Chapter 2: From Africa to India, to China to Bitcoin
Chapter 3: Historical Ironies and Coming Full Circle
Chapter 4: The 256 Odu and SHA256 as Corrective Softwares
Epilogue: Bitcoin is an Experience

Prologue: Stories Shape Reality

The stories we live by define us. Either they empower us or stop us from becoming the person we aspire to be. Bitcoin is a story of upliftment but it takes time to see this. There are many doors to the Bitcoin rabbit hole and although the chances and timings of finding them vary, what opens them are questions. The willingness to question everything. Once a door opens you’re invited on a mind-bending journey of transformation, one that inspires you to re-educate, re-evaluate and actively participate in your destiny. The journey, however, is not an easy one. The strength of your mind and morals are continuously tested as everything you value is called into question.

‘What do I value?’. This question challenges our physical, mental and emotional focuses, and forces us to ask whether they help us live a fulfilled life. We can reach this conclusion faster by simplifying the question down to ‘what makes me feel good?’. This is a primal question, one as old as life’s survival instinct of avoiding pain and seeking pleasure. This instinct has also been one of humanity’s biggest motivators in building civilisation, our shelter away from the harsh elements. Another important pillar in the foundation of early civilisation building were the religious stories and moral frameworks that the community told and agreed upon. These were and are necessary for two reasons: firstly they give meaning to being alive which promotes creative action and secondly they define the value and use of the resources (people and objects) around us. Strong existential narratives allowed early tribes to exceed Dunbar's number of 150, which is the number of people the average person can trust/maintain stable relationships with. This enabled us to stop widespread barbarism, bandit groups surviving and pleasure-seeking through force, so that we could cooperate at larger scales to advance civilisation.

Despite our successes, the existential question ‘what makes me feel good?’ still remains unanswered. In fact, it may be even harder to answer now because we have created endless ways to stimulate our senses. And here we are. Dopamine-drunk consumers hooked on digital content that promotes instant gratification. Escapism has become the norm. These distractions are one of many pills we take to ease the pains of decaying western culture, a reality fuelled by increasing poverty that keeps billions in survival mode. These conditions leave people with little to no time or motivation to challenge the status quo.

Enter Bitcoin. The Trojan horse of money that speaks to people with the promise of long-term price appreciation. Once accepted into the unsuspecting city (the curious minds of people), the doors of the horse break open and out flows information to wash away obscurities about the true nature of money. One of the first ideas presented/recapped is that good money represents time (spent working). Therefore, to preserve the money’s value it should also mirror time’s properties, especially its scarcity. These ideas set off a chain reaction that inspire people to question things like: how money and currency differ, the properties of good money, why is Bitcoin scarce, how best to use your time to accumulate this asset and how to live healthily, sustainably and harmoniously to benefit from future monetary gains.

Many Bitcoiners can verify that the journey of understanding money uproots your entire belief system. However, this is ultimately liberating once you understand how Bitcoin frees humanity from economic slavery. The understanding of this narrative is spreading. There is a global collective being called to use Bitcoin to build new systems that positively advance freedom and civilisation. This is one of many ways that Bitcoin contains religious and spiritual undertones, a point many advocates have outlined. We have heard Max Keiser’s thoughts around Bitcoin being the singularity of love, Robert Breedlove and Jimmy Song’s thoughts on Bitcoin’s Christian qualities and @muslimbitcoiner on how it stops riba (debt-based money systems) destroying communities. There may be many fascinating religious, spiritual and metaphysical parallels worth investigating. However, the one we will explore in this essay is Bitcoin’s connection to the ancient West African system of Ifá (pronounced ee-fa).

Chapter 1: Ifá’s Origins and Decoding Reality

“Mathematics is the language in which God has written the universe” ― Galileo Galilei

One of the world’s oldest ethnic groups are the West African Yorùbá people; currently made up of more than 46 million people inhabiting Nigeria; as well as Ghana, Egypt, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Benin and Togo. The birth of the Yorùbá kingdom started in the ancient south-western city of Ilé-Ifẹ̀ (around 500 B.C.E.) by a historical and mythical man of supernatural power named Odùduwà. There are many stories of his origin such as his father’s migration from East Africa. However, the general consensus is that he fathered the Yorùbá dynasty through his son Okanbi and seven grandchildren. Archaeological findings, dating as far back as 1300 C.E., showcase the rich culture’s command over materials such as bronze, brass, copper, ivory, terracotta and stone. Although their unique architecture, paintings and sculptures are masterful material expressions, one of the most beautiful parts of Yorùbá culture is its immaterial outlook on the universe.

Ifá, the spiritual system of the Yoruba people, can be viewed as both a religion and complete philosophy as it’s understood to simply be the study of life. Ifá’s wisdom is said to be uncreated/timeless, with many of the concepts appearing earlier in Ancient African history in different forms and by different names. A primary example of this is the recognition of a single supreme God, seen thousands of years before in Ancient Egypt/Kemet, one of the world’s very first civilisations. In short, Ifá is the divine code/blueprint that maps out every person, place, scenario and thing inside and outside of God’s universe. Similar to Christianity’s later concept of the Holy Trinity, Ifá states that the Supreme Creator manifests itself in three forms. Ọlọrun, the ruler of the heavens/spirit realm; Olodumare, the creator of the physical universe, and Olofi, the chosen conduit between the heavenly and earthly realms. Beneath the Supreme God are the Irunmọlẹ. These are spirits comparable to the Elohim in Christianity or the Djinn in Islam that were the first beings God created. The Irunmọlẹ are said to exist throughout the universe. Some are destined to incarnate as humans to achieve greatness before returning back to the spirit realm. These great people and their legacies are worshipped in death which turn them into Orishas, a position analogous to the Christian saints. As representatives of the Supreme God, the Orishas embody powerful natural forces and highly regarded character traits. Their abilities and knowledge are believed to be energetically accessible and can be used to help us with everyday life. This is done through prayer and humble offerings using materials related to them, and is a practice also encouraged in relation to one's own ancestors who have a vested interest in seeing us succeed. The Orisha pantheon later travelled with African slaves to the Americas and the Caribbean islands and later became subreligions such as Santería, Candomblé, Vodoun. Then we have human beings, each blessed with an Ori upon arrival on earth. The word Ori carries many meanings and can mean head, consciousness and divine destiny. Simply put, it is our personal divine spark that animates our bodies, connects us to God and carries our destiny that we must work to fulfil by operating through good character.

The creation myth is where a religious/spiritual system gives its explanation about the nature of reality. It’s interesting to note that the world’s oldest creation myths always reference water and chaos. The Ancient Egyptians described the beginning of the universe as a watery abyss ruled by Nu, the goddess of primordial potential. This concept of chaotic nothingness can be represented by the number zero, while the moment of creation can be represented by the number 1. From nothing to something, dark to light, chaos to order, 0 to 1. For them this showed the dual nature of the universe. Interestingly, the later day system of Ifá mirrors these concepts by describing the universe's beginning as existing in two states simultaneously; an ethereal sky and the watery chaotic below. What’s more intriguing is that this water metaphor seems to mirror modern scientific theory. In quantum mechanics, wave-particle theory describes the quantum realm existing as a sea of energetic waves (0) and as physical particles (1) simultaneously. This binary framework is the foundation for modern simulation theory that suggests reality may be a computer simulation. A simulation built on quantum code. Ifá asserts this idea of a coded reality and explains it through the concept of God’s Odu (creative energy) and the Irunmọlẹ. Like light, these spiritual beings/energies are spread throughout the universe and are contained within everything. Much like a jigsaw puzzle, each Irunmọlẹ is a small piece of God’s creative power and has a specific duty/function to carry out in the universe. Together these energies form a universal body of knowledge or a code that is known as the Odu (meaning basket/pot of wisdom). A great reference for this concept is the film The Matrix, where different programs serve different functions to uphold a coded reality that humans live in. Like the film’s protagonists, the Yorùbá believe that it’s possible to access, study and interpret the binary codes of this matrix that we find ourselves in.

Ọ̀rúnmìlà, the Orisha of wisdom knowledge and divination, was said to be the Irunmọlẹ that incarnated thousands of years ago to bring the complete knowledge of the Odu to humanity. This wisdom was shared and documented orally and the complete corpus was named the Odu Ifá (meaning the complete knowledge of nature/destiny). This body of knowledge contains 256 Odu (principles) that speak to every situation in the coded universe. The entire 256 system is based on the first 16 Odu called the Odu Meji, which are the core principles of life/reality. The knowledge in them is interchangeable (16x16) which creates the entire matrix of 256. Much like the biblical structure of chapters and verses, each Odu contains around 800 Ese (verses) of deep wisdom to further explain the mysteries of that particular Odu. As a living body of knowledge the number of ese is constantly growing. All 256 Odu have their own name and binary symbol to clearly identify them. Every symbol contains two columns. Each column is composed of four binary values (0 or 1) that are vertically aligned. This means each Odu contains 8 binary values altogether.

The foundational 16 Odu, the Odu Meji, have identical binary diagrams.

Odu 169, Ika Bara, and its non-identical pattern.

The Áwo, Babaaláwo (man) or Iyaláwo (woman), is a spiritual priest that devotes their life to studying and memorising the Odu Ifá. By learning the wisdom of the 256 principles, the Áwo is able to help people trying to align with their coded path/destiny. They do this through various divination rituals that reveal the relevant Odu and the wisdom that needs to be shared with people. The main divination method is a traditional practice called Dafá which begins with them calling on the energy and wisdom of Ọ̀rúnmìlà. The process itself is simple and involves an Opon Ifá (a dark plate) placed on the floor with Iyerosun (powder) spread all over it. The Áwo then begins passing 16 Ikin Ifá (dried palm kernels or kola nuts) between both hands before grabbing the entire bunch with their right hand. Whenever 1 or 2 nuts remain in their left hand a binary value (0 or 1) is determined and is drawn on the powdered plate. Typically the left column is drawn first. Once both columns have been drawn one of the 256 Odu diagrams is revealed, which the Áwo will identify before reciting the verses' wisdom of that Odu to the client. If further clarification is needed they will cite more ese verses.

Chapter 2: From Africa to India, to China to Bitcoin

The origins of Ifá are shrouded in mystery because Yorùbá culture was traditionally oral. In fact, the first Yorùbá language text was only published in 1843 by Samuel Ajayi Crowther, Yorùbá linguist and the first African Anglican bishop. This is not uncommon. Oral traditions have been the norm for most of our 300,000 year existence here on earth. Ancient evidence of proto-writing technology, such as the Greek Dispilio tablet, only dates back as far as 7300 years, predating both Sumer and Ancient Egypt writings by about 2000 years. Prehistory is obscure due to a lack of writing. However, what is certain is that the birth of the first civilisations were the result of complex cultures, traditions and knowledge created during the prehistoric Neolithic age. Ifá’s core principles are considered timeless and are believed to reach deep into prehistory. Some Yorùbá clans state that Ifá’s concepts (in their current form) originate from the 12,000 year old Nile Valley tribes that founded Ancient Egypt/Kemet. Further Yorùbá folklore describes eastern tribes coming into South Western Nigeria to found Ilé-Ifẹ̀ (circa 500 B.C.E) after later day Ancient Egypt was first conquered by Mesopotamian Assyrians roughly 160 years before (circa 669 B.C.E). This might explain why the structure of the Yorùbá Orisha resembles the Egyptian deities. It may even be why core concepts such as Amun-Re, spiritual light emanating from the supreme creator, appears in Ifá as the Irunmọlẹ. These emigrational histories are corroborated by revered historian Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop who noted various African peoples’ self-told origin stories, as well as the recurring names of tribes and gods all over the continent. In chapter 15 of his book ‘The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality’, Diop states how the Egyptians and Nubians said they came from the south, southern Bantu tribes just north and West Africans from the east.

While Africa’s history of prehistoric migration routes is unsettled, what is clear is the anthropological evidence showing the civilisational model first developing in Africa. With that came a sharing of knowledge that influenced cultures globally. Divination, the occult practice of reading/receiving specific knowledge from supernatural sources, is a perfect example. Many cultures and their religions developed their own methods of divination just like the Yorùbá people did with Dafá. Scrying was a main Ancient Egyptian method where diviners would enter trance states to decipher messages from ink or water. This influence eventually bled into Ancient Greece a couple thousand years later where divination also became a core practice. It is well-known that great Greek scholars like Hippocrates, Plato, Pythagoras, Thales, Socrates and others travelled to the Egyptian/Kemetic temple-universities Waset and Ipet Isut to study academic, practical and esoteric subjects. We see this influence in things such as: both recognising a supreme deity (Osiris and Zeus), a pantheon of deities that mirror each other and practices like deity offerings. Greek divination methods varied from human oracles (equivalent to Áwo’s), to Thirai, the act of pebble tossing to decipher messages in the stone configurations left by the Thriae nymphs.

History shows us that building civilisation requires us to stand on the shoulders of giants. The best civilisational models relied on pre-established layers in the same way the internet protocol does. The internet stack is made up of a physical (hardware), network and transportation layer. Each layer enables the next until eventually an application layer was built for us to use and benefit from the entire model. Using this analogy for civilisation, humans are the physical layer, our groups and ideas are the network layer, the technology we use to share ideas (writing, stories, pictures) is the transport layer and the application layer are the things and institutions we invent to support civilisation. Although prehistoric information exchange cannot be verified, it's clear that early nomadic tribes were busy building humanity’s network layer, spreading ideas as they journeyed out from Africa in small groups. What were the ideas and concepts they carried? If we look back 73,000 years ago, early people in South African caves were creating abstract art, as well as beads fashioned from sea-snail shells, ochre sculpture engraved with geometric patterns. Culture was clearly developing. We may never know the level of detail of their religious/spiritual narratives when they carried them to Europe and Asia roughly 13,000 years later. We also don't know how these stories developed when these nomads established the 4 major river valley civilisations. However, what we do know is that as recently as 15,000 years ago the Saharan Natufian people had complex rituals around death. These are the same people that carried foods to the fertile crescent and as far east as Mongolia. By the 8th millennia (10,000 years ago) pre-Egyptian Nile Valley tribes were importing goats and sheep from Southwest Asia. Once the Indus Valley had been established by the 3rd millennia (roughly 5300 years ago) Ancient Egypt and the Indus Valley (ancient India) were regular trade partners. Lapis Lazuli, a precious Indian stone, was the main focus of their trade. Still, goods and services aren’t the only things exchanged during trade. Stories and information are arguably one of the most important resources swapped. Information is power and it would have been in the interest of both parties to fortify their own civilisations’ abundance, security and spiritual/religious development.

If we focus on Africa and India, we see striking similarities between the philosophical, spiritual and numerical systems of Ifá and the Vedas. The Rig Veda, a 7000 year old Sanskrit text, is the first book in a collection of four (collectively called the Vedas). This ancient Indian text is self-described as the documented ‘eternal knowledge of God’ and has therefore always existed, akin to Ifá. The knowledge was orally transmitted between generations before finally being written down during India’s Vedic period. The knowledge itself is believed to have been ‘heard’ by sages in deep meditation during prehistory, and is described as ‘shruti’ meaning ‘that which is heard’. This understanding flows directly into the Vedas and influences the poetic/musical structure of the text, which is traditionally chanted in song. This historically led to the creation of several metres to read the text in, which have helped preserve the text until today. The very first richa (verse) of the Rig Veda’s first sukta (hymn) uses Gâyatrî, a 24 syllabic metre also used in one of Hinduism’s most revered hymns, the Gâyatrî mantra. In total there are 191 hymns in the Rig Veda. These are said to be the foundation of the other 3 Vedas books as they reflect the beginning of creation by a supreme being. In hymn 101, the concept of this supreme being Brahman is described as an omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient being that upholds all of reality and animates all Jivas (souls). The creator assigns destinies (experiences and tasks) to souls throughout the universe based on their Sanchita Karma (accumulated/coded actions). Sanchita karma is one of three types of karma. These core concepts mirror Ifá’s predestined Irunmọlẹ and one's own Ori (destiny that is also broken up into three parts). Another parallel concept mentioned is the binary idea of zero nothingness, described as ‘unmanifested water’, that preceded the one God’s creation (seen in hymn 129). This concept has inspired yogis like Marharishi Bhashya to recognise the existence of the ‘avyakta sukta’ meaning ‘unmanifested hymn’. This unmanifested hymn would come before the 191 hymns of the Rig Veda that signify creation. This would bring the total number of Rig Veda hymns to 192, a multiple of 16. This would mean that the foundational Vedas’ numerical structure fits perfectly into Ifá’s matrix of 256. Even if we exclude the ‘avyakta sukta’ concept, this is still seen in the Rig Veda’s total number of syllables of 432,000, another multiple of 16.

Moving further east and forward in time, we see the same spiritual concepts manifest within another religious and numerical divination system. Roughly 2300 years ago, during the 3rd century, the metaphysical concept of Yin Yang (universal duality) grew and populated Chinese philosophical schools. Though most scholars credit the concept to the Han Dynasty, the concept was present 1200 years earlier, and appeared in the I-Ching, an ancient divination text written towards the end of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties (1550 - 1050 B.C.E). The I-Ching’s is fabled to have been written 5000 years ago by Fu Xi, a mythical half-dragon Emperor who divined and studied the wisdom of creation that manifests in binaries. This understanding is visually represented in the I-Ching as a broken line (Yin) and unbroken line (Yang). When stacked vertically, these two lines can create 4 visual combinations (2x2), which the Chinese used as symbols for the 4 seasons. By adding another line to these 4 symbols (2x2x2), they created 8 unique symbols called trigrams (three vertically stacked lines). Together, these 8 symbols create the Bagua, a diagram used in Taoism to represent the fundamental principles of reality. Like Ifá’s Odu Meji, the Bagua are the foundation of the I-Ching divination system. Like the Odu Meji, the trigrams are combinable (8x8) which creates a complete system of 64 hexagrams (six vertically stacked lines), each with a name and explanations containing universal wisdom of all situations. Again, this less comprehensive 64 matrix fits perfectly into Ifá’s 256 matrix. The method of divining from the I-Ching also mirrors the African Áwo’s. I-Ching practitioners ask the universe questions, throw 3 coins and observe the resulting combinations of heads (Yang) and tails (Yin). These combinations determine a yin or yang line that is used to draw a hexagram from the bottom up. Eventually a hexagram is revealed that will speak to their initial question.

The foundational 8 trigram symbols of The Bagua, the core concept in Taoism.

The 64 hexagram matrix of the I-Ching, created by combining the Bagua symbols (8x8).

The I-Ching 64 matrix fits perfectly inside Ifá’s 256 matrix.

By backing spiritual narratives with maths, ancient peoples were able to create durable cultural foundations that helped them shape reality and contribute toward civilisation building. And so this story continued. Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, the German philosopher, mathematician and “last universal genius”, helped carry numerical matrices into the modern age. Born in 1646, Leibniz was fascinated by Chinese culture, namely the 64 hexagrams of the I-Ching and how they corresponded to binary values 000000 - 111111. He used this inspiration as the basis for his calculus which mapped the entire binary number system in his article Explication de l’Arithmétique Binaire in 1705. Fast forward to 1936 and maths genius Alan Turing conceptualises the Universal Turing Machine, a device that could use Leibniz’s binary calculus to solve any problem that had a program written for it. Eventually, this mechanical concept became the central concept for modern computers and eventually modern civilisation’s automated infrastructure. The 1963 creation of ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) played a key role in this. ASCII is a binary system where letters, numbers and characters are assigned a slot in a system of 256 slots (originally 128). The emergence of ASCII catapulted computer science, the digital economy, email and our ability to communicate abstract ideas about reality across space and time. By the early 90s there were mounting fears around digital security. This resulted in the USA’s National Security Agency developing most of the encryption algorithms and hash functions in use today. Of the many hash functions out there one of the most popular and secure is SHA-256. This made it the hash function of choice for Satoshi Nakamoto when he/she/they constructed Bitcoin’s proof of work consensus mechanism in 2008.

Chapter 3: Historical Ironies and Coming Full Circle

Mapping the threads from ancient religious systems up to Bitcoin’s inception reveals just how important narratives are when it comes to shaping reality. Furthermore, if we zoom out at the picture painted so far there are several ironies present, almost as if God laughs to itself as it stitches the universal tapestry. The first of these ironies is the modern assertion that we have moved away from religious superstition. In reality, it seems like we have just painted old toys with new paint. Maybe even less artfully than our ancestors. The Covid-19 crisis revealed that the gods of science and technology are to be worshipped without question, as they supposedly offer order and meaning during chaos. Our priests are now pocket computers that ‘divine’ information/narratives from centralised companies and figures that we deify. These false gods scramble to control the digital realm that influences our perception of reality. Despite their monopoly over economics, industries and information, their virtual matrix is undermined by the nuances of real life that they refuse to acknowledge. We the people experience these truths offline. This conflict of realities and narratives is the core reason why anti-establishment meme culture is thriving. It’s also the reason why the decentralised Bitcoin network was born, an event that will cause bloated centralised control to collapse under its own weight.

The second of these ironies is humanity’s full circle back to oral/mental transmission of information. When the British colonialists began turning Yorùbáland into Nigeria in 1861 they deemed the colourful culture primitive, institutionally suppressed it and promoted Western Christian values. As English literacy was taught, Ifá and other oral traditions were extracted from the people alongside a number of natural resources. For those with an awareness of this history, Bitcoin’s sovereign offering is an easy sell, especially since all self-custodied wallets only require a 12 word seed phrase (password). For hardcore privacy fanatics, one of the most extreme ways to secure a wallet seed phrase is to memorise it. However, this jeopardises the Bitcoin if the wallet owner is injured or forgets the words. Still, in theory, if they want to decentralise custody with a trusted person they would have to share the seed phrase verbally. It’s here that we see orality re-emerge as one of the dominant ways of guarding and preserving an important narrative. Traditionally, this only worked if the sender and receiver both understood the value of preserving that information mentally, which was reinforced through maths and cultural traditions. Today that reinforcement exists as code. This revelation supports the previously mentioned point that speech and narratives are a reality shaping force. In the beginning was the word. A more recent historic example of this is Bernstein v. US Department of Justice in which code was established as free speech. The fact that this happened in the only country with a constitution to protect free speech further reinforces the idea of speech being the most powerful tool, meaning no central entity can/should control it.

The third irony, in relation to Nigeria, is the return of a numerical system designed to offer clarity in an unclear universe and that is coded around the number 256. Nigeria‘s history of colonisation, resource depletion and corruption instilled by the West still plays out today as their IMF debts keep business running as usual. Still Nigeria’s young entrepreneurial population are working around this rigged game. By using the un-confiscatable, un-inflatable and decentralised digital money they have become the sixth largest Bitcoin market in the world. Users are now able to freely trade and save using money/currency that does not depreciate like the crumbling Naira. Nigerians are also able to manoeuvre around central banking bans that block access to trade of certain goods and services, allowing the free market economy to flourish. This reveals one of Bitcoin’s lateral abilities as some kind of purifying force, as it exposes and purges the manifestations of the global fiat infection.

Chapter 4: The 256 Odu & SHA256 as Corrective Softwares

As above, so below. An ancient proverb describing how nature mirrors itself at the macro and micro level. We honour this proverb when we create maths-backed religious systems that operate like miniature dollhouses of the larger universe. They are arguably the first virtual realities humanity ever created. The infrastructure/natural forces in these analogue virtual realities is typically run by immaterial deities/spirits. By studying the attributes of the spirits in these dollhouses we were able to define, organise, navigate and manipulate the world around us. We continue this practice today, with many of the same parallels, as we play within the digital virtual realities that we create. A great example of this are programs like flight simulators that allow pilots to practise flying using real world physics. Furthermore, The global digital infrastructure is run by immaterial software that power towns, navigate ships, direct shipments and so much more. Softwares are the new spirits.

In relation to Bitcoin, such ideas were explored by Billionaire Bitcoin advocate Michael Saylor, who described the software as “digital life”. Saylor boldly went on to claim that Bitcoin is a “swarm of cyber hornets, serving the goddess of wisdom, feeding on the fire of truth”. Continuing the analogy, Bitcoin being an immaterial spirit also has its defined purpose in the realities that it serves (both physical and digital). According to the whitepaper this purpose is to provide “strong control of ownership” within a peer-to-peer network. Satoshi states this was Bitcoin’s starting point, which defines its core purpose of ensuring property rights and individual sovereignty. It achieves this abstract goal by technically mirroring one of the universe's most fundamental processes, the passing of time. The universe displays time through its set thermodynamic laws, with entropy being the law that describes the guaranteed decay of all physical matter. Saylor referred to Bitcoin as a microcosm of the universe as it contains its own laws (supply cap, issuance schedule, blocksize, etc.) that creates a process to track time passing. This process is Bitcoin’s unchangeable blockchain that grows every 10 minutes with the emergence of a new block. This is the basis for Bitcoin’s nickname ‘timechain’ or the slogan ‘tick tock next block’. This constant ticking brings an awareness to time, forces us to question how we should spend our finite time and inspires us to align with things that bring us balance and joy. This is because if money is supposed to represent time spent working then Bitcoin’s finite supply means the value/purchasing power of your saved time cannot be diluted. This is a vast change from the dominant currencies that are arbitrarily printed out of thin air by central planners, meaning we have to work longer/harder to keep up with the cost of living.

Ifá’s philosophical and numerical matrix also brings our awareness to life and time’s finality. It is said that, other than the day we are born and die, we can always positively change our lives. The core belief and purpose of consulting the 256 Odu is to help us fulfil our Ori’s mission (destiny). Destiny is co-created. With the Áwo’s insights we can identify the codes (Odu and Orishas) most related to our destinies. This wisdom can then help us to make the right sacrifices and choices that bring us into alignment, so that we achieve happiness and fulfilment during our lives. On a practical level, Bitcoin also inspires these virtues of hard work and self-improvement through its SHA256 powered mining framework. Buyers and miners alike must work and sacrifice real blood, sweat, tears and time to earn the world’s most scarce digital property that takes energy to produce/earn. The reality of hard work and sacrifice in order to live a fulfilled life involves us eliminating habits and things that hinder this goal. Instead we’re encouraged to foster stoic values that enhance it, values like focus, discipline and patience that make the journey to our goals that much easier and more enjoyable. It’s in this way that we see how both Bitcoin and Ifá function as corrective softwares/systems that help realign us with what we truly want and our destined paths. Ultimately they motivate us to take agency and co-create our ideal lives with the slice of time we are blessed with on earth.

EPILOGUE: Bitcoin is an Experience

In the end, all our souls leave with are the memories and the light we gain throughout this life. Perhaps the key takeaway from the journey of discovering Bitcoin is the reminder there is still wonder to experience during our personal and collective journeys. A needed optimistic message during a time where digitalisation continues to make the world feel small, with little room for exploration. The grip of financial puppeteers over narratives and currencies is slipping and Bitcoin is here to help us reach individual and collective truth. From this another civilisation boom, a second renaissance, will emerge and transform these despotic times into ones of prosperity, freedom, joy and love.

SOURCES

The Oricle

Discussion about this post

The Oricle

Bitcoin's Link to Ancient African Spirituality

Exploring Bitcoin's the conceptual and historical ties to Ifá and other religious systems

Contents

Prologue: Stories Shape Reality

Chapter 1: Ifá’s Origins and Decoding Reality

Chapter 2: From Africa to India, to China to Bitcoin

Chapter 3: Historical Ironies and Coming Full Circle

Chapter 4: The 256 Odu & SHA256 as Corrective Softwares

EPILOGUE: Bitcoin is an Experience

SOURCES

Yorùbá and Ifá

Ancient Migration and Trade Routes

Rig Veda and I-Ching

General Knowledge

Metaphysical Concepts

Discussion about this post