The Bushido of Bitcoin

A book written by Substacker Aleksandar Svetski, edited by John Carter; a book review, Part One.

Back when I was an admin at the Doomstead Diner, we talked a lot about bitcoin. That was when you could still buy it for a few dollars or less. The general consensus was, governments would never allow it to flourish, it was not secure, the electrical and internet demands of it have a long-term shelf life…

I was hanging with the wrong crowd.

I bought The Bushido of Bitcoin, after John Carter talked about editing it, and I made the acquaintance of Aleksandar Svetski. I admit, I did not give much thought to Bitcoin after it exceeded $25,000. Now after reading the first half of this book, I am thinking about buying at $100,000.

But this book is not even really about Bitcoin, as both John and Aleksandar have said. This is about culture, society, civilization and the virtue that sustains it. This is a review of the first half of the book¹, much of it a lengthy discussion about virtue, warrior culture, the loss of virtue and the warrior ethos in this modern age and the need to restore it, as America and the world are very much in need of restoration.

I’m encouraged by what I’ve seen from the emergent behaviors and subcultures in the “cult of Bitcoin.” There are strong tendencies toward homeschooling, health, nutrient-dense foods, localism, community, family, children, self-defense, self-sufficency and other generally life affirming ideals…It’s why I laugh at those who pejoratively label bitcoiners as “religious zealots.” They don’t realize that the comment is actually a compliment. A movement like this must be as religious as it is technological and economic…Changing the world requires changing the behavior of the people that make it up. This starts with a narrative. It starts with the adherents to a new order believing in something not yet manifest, and act accordingly.

I have been following closely the work of the New Right, formerly the dissident right, now the Right ascendant. One of the things I have long wished the right would discuss more, is virtue. One of the reasons so many young men feel like they have no meaning or purpose, is not just that the economy and culture has been cut out from under them, but because we have lost the language for virtue and the myths that accompany that. We’ve been lead to feel toxic, like there is something fundamentally wrong with and detrimental about masculinity, when of course civilization exists because masculine men carved it out of the wilderness. Demonizing the masculine is akin to tearing down civilization and inviting the sort of hyper masculine Age of Militants envisioned by the likes of Ivan Throne.

ALeksandar discusses this at length in his Prelude:

Centuries of civilization coupled with centralization and increasing material comforts have transformed men who once had honor and virtue into soft, weak, and ignoble creatures addicted to porn, Netflix and Uber Eats. Of course this degradation is more complex…but they are the thematic drivers alongside weak, easy money…good times that follow hard times soften the men so the door to bad times is opened, following which the hard men must rise up again and painfully recreate good times. So the cycle continues…I’m called to advocate [for] virtues in this book.

What are those virtues? Bushido is the warrior code of virtue of the Japanese. Aleksandar discusses the virtues of different cultures in Part One.

There were eight primary virtues in Bushido:

1. Justice

2. Courage

3. Benevolence

4. Politeness

5. Sincerity

6. Honor

7. Loyalty

8. Self-control

To which Aleksandar adds two, for his Virtues of Bitcoin, Responsibility and Excellence.

The Closest English comparison to the Japanese word Bushido is Chivalry. Both were sort of a “precept of knighthood” the warrior class sought to embody, and which demonstrated their noblesse…Chivalry finds it’s [etymological] root in horsemanship…Bushido can be translated as “the way of the warrior,” “the warrior’s path,” or “the warriors principles.”

The virtues of Western chivalry:

1. Courage

2. Loyalty

3. Generosity

4. Honor

5. Temperance

6. Chastity

7. Humility

The four Cardinal Virtues of Christianity:

1. Prudence

2. Justice

3. Fortitude

4. Temperance

Perhaps we are living in an age where ancient, or Bushido-like degrees of warlike nobility are not practical in the purely physical sense. If so, the question then becomes, how can we still cultivate this warrior ethos in other ways? Where can we find conflict that pushes us to dig deep inside and make contact with the vital? Can we develop this warrior ethos elsewhere and apply it to other endeavors? We’ll explore this and more throughout the book.

I discussed this, quoting Musashi as Aleksandar does, in my post about the warrior archetype.

Some would argue we have been in WWIII for some time, and the Trump Admin is no cessation in that, despite his attempts to end the Ukraine war. The Left in America, in a desperate state as it’s two trillion dollar deficit slush fund is now at stake, has increased the violence of their rhetoric. We should not forget, there is no such thing as eternal peace. As Aleksandar makes clear,

Peace is at best, the period between conflict, and ultimately what we experience after life, i.e. in death. In fact I have come to believe that without war peace is meaningless. For that matter, without peace, so too is war. They are forever entwined, like Yin and Yang. Life, chemistry, physics all require tension and polarity to exist….

Si vis pacem, para bellum. War finds us, whoever and wherever we are, so if you want peace, you had best prepare for war….

War strengthens us, and if we do not face it, we are relegated to the dustbin of history.

It is a paradox. As Aleksandar quotes the Hagakure, “Warriorhood without culture is not true warriorhood; culture without warriorhood is not true culture.” Train up young men as warriors, they will want to go to war. Fail to train up young men as warriors, and other cultures will bring war to you. How do we train young men to be warriors to prevent other cultures from bringing war to us, while not going off to war unnecessarily, or having young men’s desire for war turn inward?

Virtues hold something of a key to that. Virtues are a check on bad behavior, if they cannot eliminate bad behavior entirely.

In the absence of virtue much of the culture has become decadent like fabled Atlantis, or historical Babylon.

Aleksandar very much admires the Samurai culture of Bushido, for the beauty of the culture, because of, not in spite of, their Martial spirit. They were a culture that prized the action, not words, of virtue.

The Samurai believed in doing, not saying. Action and behavior demonstrated their faith, knowledge and values, more than words ever could.…In Samurai culture, knowledge was not pursued as an end unto itself, but as a means to the attainment of wisdom, which was defined as knowledge in action, or the doing of the right thing at the right time.

Part II is a discussion of each of the Ten Virtues of the Bushido of Bitcoin. It is refreshing, to read about virtue in such a way. It is enlivening.

The virtue of justice can be defined as the power of resolution of decision. To decide literally means to cut off other alternatives. To exercise judgement is to discriminate. Inazo Nitobe quotes an unnamed Samurai, “Rectitude is the power of deciding upon a certain course of conduct in accordance with reason, without wavering - to die when it is right to die, to strike when to strike is right.”

The ancient Confucian philosopher Mencius, called righteousness a man’s path, and justice the “straight and narrow path which a man ought to take to regain the lost paradise.”

Or this, to start the discussion on Courage:

Courage is faith in action. It requires venturing forth into the unknown, the zone of uncertainty. It is not the absence of fear, but a quality of mind and spirit that enables one to meet danger, in spite of fear. I’m convinced it is the Alpha virtue, and where virtue itself originates. Courage animates life and is the progenitor of action. Without it we could not exist.

If Justice is the “frame,” then courage is the “soul” of Bushido.

ALeksandar has clearly spent a lot of time thinking about virtue, how it has been perceived in the past and how it relates to life today. I don’t know of anyone who has done as much in this regard, but it seems like many are willing and the times call for it.² He spends several pages discussing each virtue in it’s historical context, how it can relate today, and then at the end of each chapter he adds a page or two, how this relates to Bitcoin.

Bitcoin, from Aleksandar’s perspective, will inherit global reserve currency status, it is the currency of the future for most of the globe. I don’t know if that is true, but it is not a currency by fiat, by any nation or central banker, and that has a lot going for it. If it were to be the GRC, then $100,000 is a bargain, when you imagine a bitcoin might be worth trillions some day.

Whatever you think of Bitcoin, the Virtues of the Bushido of Bitcoin are worth your attention, and are valuable in their own right. Ultimately of much greater value than Bitcoin, as no currency can save your soul. That is what the first half of this book is really about, a call for you to save your soul by embracing the warrior ethos and fighting for the good, true and beautiful.

The Bushido of Bitcoin is a worthy read for anyone who is looking to live with greater vitality - as the times seem to increasingly call for.

1. Part III of The Bushido of Bitcoin is the second half of the book, largely about putting virtues into action. Part II of this book-review will follow when I have finished the book.

2. The other three on Substack that come to mind: Johann Kurtz at Becoming Noble, Ivan Throne, who is building some new warrior culture, and Mark Bisone, who is discussing the ethos of the Warrior from the Christian perspective, in his latest work, and doing some top-secret prep for the war he sees at present evolving, the war for the soul of the nation, and really for the soul of humanity.