About The Financial Millennium.
Abstract
As a financial technology with a millenarian attitude, cryptocurrencies were bound to produce their own heretics and schismatics. Communicating over Telegram channels, conference calls, symbol-laden images, and multi-hour YouTube videos, believers assert that Bitcoin and Ethereum are the exoteric forms of the hidden "chosen one": XRP, a prominent but not industry-leading cryptocoin. For those who believe, XRP is one component of a total economic and social transformation under a set of secret laws about to be revealed. Elites will be brought low, believers will become rich, global financial infrastructure will be rebased in a jubilee, and miraculous technologies and beings will be disclosed. For many theorists, this monetary apocalypse is part of an explicitly Christian apocalyptic event. In this article, I draw on archives across a variety of formats to explain the evolution of an apocalyptic crypto sect and use these archives to reflect on the context and future of religious imaginaries in the blockchain space.