EXCLUSIVE: Bitcoin as faith: How one man found spiritual meaning in the blo

Boaz R. is a man of faith, but Torah is not quite his thing; what he truly believes in is Bitcoin. He's a well-known American physicist as well as a financial tinkerer of sorts. Every time I speak with him I want to kick myself in the behind, as he’s been harping on me for years about investing in Bitcoin, and the idea that I could have been a multi-millionaire had I just listened to him drives me berserk.

“You must try to understand the spiritual nature of Bitcoin – it is an earthly manifestation of infinite abundance,” he proclaims with fire in his eyes. “It’s a miracle that G-d brought down to earth to allow for abundance, peace, freedom, and to bring us to the Promised Land.”

Me: "What on Earth are you talking about!?"

For financial ignoramuses like me out there who don’t know a Bitcoin from a bagel, it's is a digital currency introduced in 2009 that enables people to send and receive money online without relying on banks or intermediaries. It operates on blockchain technology, a decentralized system where transactions are securely recorded and verified by a global network of computers. Unlike traditional currencies, Bitcoin isn’t controlled by any government or institution.

Hope that's now clear to y'all.

Bitcoin Change center on Dizengoff Street, Tel Aviv (Photo" Miriam Alster FLASH90 )

About 10 years away from retirement Boaz and his wife have taken the bold move of refinancing their totally paid-off home in order to invest all of their money in Bitcoin.

“I invested every penny we have ever earned in Bitcoin. That’s the sign of a true believer. I don’t have any other stocks, bonds or real estate. But I am sure that it’s value will increase by 100 times over the next 20 years, and I’ll be on my way to being a billionaire," he asserted.

So if Bitcoin crashed for whatever reason, Boaz and his family would be totally impoverished. He was an early believer: Already in 2010, he bought a significant amount of it. Bitcoin had a price of zero when it was introduced in 2009. Its price jumped from its long-held level of $0.10 to $0.20 on Oct. 26, 2010. Before the year had closed out, it had reached $0.30. Today it it worth $105,280.30.

He made a grand declaration: “Bitcoin can be the foundation of human civilization – a start of a new era with truly free markets that are international, totally peacefully, honest, respectful of laws of physics and nature, and energy conservation."

"Say what?" I retorted.

He explained to me that the key to understanding how Bitcoin can bring all these wonderful things to the world is the fact that it is the only true scarce asset on the planet.

People often compare Bitcoin to gold in terms of scarcity but in reality, gold is not scarce: there are still many thousands of tons of gold in the ground and no one knows for sure how much there really is.

Bitcoin ATM in Tel Aviv (Photo: Miriam Alster/ Flash 90)

Only truly scarce asset ever.

Unlike traditional currencies that can be printed in unlimited quantities, Bitcoin has a fixed supply cap of 21 million coins, encoded into its protocol. This predetermined scarcity ensures that no more Bitcoins can ever be created, setting it apart from inflation-prone fiat currencies.

The concept of digital scarcity is revolutionary. Before Bitcoin, digital items could be easily copied or reproduced, making scarcity in the digital realm difficult to achieve. Bitcoin solved this problem through blockchain technology, which securely tracks and verifies ownership of each coin.

A Bitcoin miner is like a digital treasure hunter. They use powerful computers to solve tricky puzzles. When they solve one, they get to add a "block" of transactions to Bitcoin's public record (the blockchain) and earn new Bitcoins as a reward. It keeps Bitcoin secure and running smoothly.

“There are now 19 million Bitcoin, which came from mining. We're almost there; we're getting closer and closer to having all of the Bitcoins, we only have 5 perc to mine; we'll hit it 2140. When people think of a scarce asset they think of gold, but miners are constantly digging up gold, if gold goes up they just mine more," Boaz explains. "With Bitcoin that's not possible, no one can increase or decrease the rate, every 10 mins there's 3.8 bitcoins created.”

Crossing of the Red Sea (Photo: Painting by Nicolas Poussin )

Boaz ties the miracle of Bitcoin together with the Torah parasha - Bishalach - which we’ll be reading in a couple of weeks.

“The biblical story of the parting of the Red Sea is a tale of liberation, faith, and the journey to a Promised Land of hope and prosperity. In many ways, Bitcoin mirrors this narrative as a modern technological miracle that aims to free people from financial oppression and guide them to a new form of economic sovereignty. The chosen people are the Bitcoiners!," he burst out with elation.

“In the Exodus story," he clarified, "the Israelites faced overwhelming odds, trapped between the Red Sea and the advancing Egyptian army. Their escape required faith in a divine intervention that defied natural laws. Similarly, Bitcoin emerged during the 2008 financial crisis, when trust in traditional financial systems was eroding. The creation of Bitcoin - a decentralized, secure, and scarce digital currency - was nothing short of miraculous, solving the age-old problem of trust without intermediaries through blockchain technology."

U.S. flag on the moon (Photo: Castleski/ Shutterstock)

President Donald Trump in his inauguration speech said he would plant the Stars and Stripes on Mars. “The human race needed Bitcoin otherwise there would be no way to do long-term planning, such as the project to go to Mars; how could you plan such an endeavor if you weren’t sure what the value of the currency was. With BC you know the value will eventually go up as it’s perfectly scarce. It allows for millenia-long contracts! In addition it’s the only honest ledger ever!” Boaz joyfully cried out.

Finally, the other mysterious element of Bitcoin is that its creator is unknown till this day. It was created by an unknown person or group using the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. They communicated only through emails and online forums, disappearing entirely in 2010.

“We know who discovered all other major modern technologies, but not Bitcoin. Bitcoin is about the people, not the creator. The creator could be God Himself,” Boaz muses.

That's when I decided that he had totally lost it; my faith runs deep, but my savings on a blockchain? Not a chance!"