As a follower of Christ and believer in the Bible, there seems to be a conversation that seems to be missing within the Church . This is a serious conversation about Cryptocurrency and Blockchain and how it can help further their mission and strengthen their communities. The lack of this conversation is absolutely detrimental to to the development of the modern church.

The first issue many church leaders face in regards to understanding the benefits of these technologies is a lack of understand of what they are. Within the post I hope to provide a succinct introduction and a few examples of how they can be used to achieve organizational goals of the church.

**The BONES **First I want to unravel two of the terms I have used above that get people lost upfront.

Blockchain — A way of organizing data so that new information builds upon the past information. A visualization I like to walk people through is to imagine you have an envelope. You write down how much money someone owes you. Then you wrap that envelope up and write a new transaction that occurred on the new envelope. Then you repeat over and over again, letter over letter, transaction over transaction. Over time you start to have a chain of letters inside of each other. This chain of letters provides the basis for a provable history where someone tampering with it would be evident. This is analogous to how blockchain operates.

Cryptocurrency- a digital currency that is secured with cryptography. The value of cryptocurrencies establish their value through a variety of means. However, at its core, the value comes from two aspects from my understanding. The 1st first is the ability for users to securely exchange digital currency and assets while minimizing middle men. The 2nd is through the agreement of value by a community of people who engage in the marketplace. Blockchain is one of the tools used to make some cryptocurrencies work. There are a number of other tools that work together to make cryptocurrencies work. Outlining these components is another conversation.

Now that we have two basic terms broken out, lets get into the meat of how cryptocurrencies and/or blockchain can be used to the benefit of faith communities.

The MEAT As believers, we pledge our allegiance to G-d and then to the people of G-d. We believe that there is order to the world, whether seen or unseen. This is the same type of order we attempt to create in our relationships. We create hierarchies and cultural traditions to better operate as a society under G-d.

Historically, these communities existed as a system unto themselves and reflected every part of life for its members. However, as the foundation for organizations scaled up, the ability for believers to continue to operate in accordance with their ideals faltered. The desire to create inclusive environments while maintaining the cohesiveness of the faith community (Body of Christ for those who are Christians) created a platform for people to opt out of the established culture. In doing so, many faith communities also lost the ability to efficiently realign themselves. The ability to manage an organization in accordance to commonly ascribed values is an endeavor that is outside of the scope of many churches, mosques, synagogues, etc. This is not what Pastors/Rabbis/Imams have focused their message on providing. Primarily due to the resources it would take to implement and manage in a reasonable way. Also, accountability is difficult. This is where cryptocurrency and blockchain related technologies play a part. Cryptocurrencies a structured protocols that allow the participants in the network to establish and operate in a manner of shared values. The value of cryptocurrencies reflect the values of its users. Therefore, faith based communities can create systems and protocols for their members in a robust and transparent way.

The Acts 2 Church Many times during my faith journey I found myself disappointed and frustrated with the way the Church operated. However, I have been able to experience glimpses of the beauty of what the Church could be; in the support I had as a kid growing up at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church to the close knit community of Bible Center in adulthood. These experiences are one of the reasons I have probably invested more time in the Book of Acts than any other book. In Acts there is a beautiful description of how one Early Christian community operated.

ACTS 2 41 So then, those who accepted his message were baptized; and on that day about 3,000 souls were added [to the body of believers]. 42 They were continually and faithfully devoting themselves to the instruction of the apostles, and to fellowship, to eating meals together and to prayers. 43 A sense of awe was felt by everyone, and many wonders and signs (attesting miracles) were taking place through the apostles. 44 And all those who had believed [in Jesus as Savior] were together and had all things in common [considering their possessions to belong to the group as a whole]. 45 And they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing the proceeds with all [the other believers], as anyone had need. 46 Day after day they met in the temple [area] continuing with one mind, and breaking bread in various private homes. They were eating their meals together with joy and generous hearts, 47 praising God continually, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord kept adding to their number daily those who were being saved.

What always blew my mind about this scripture was the direct relationship between belief and making a choice to engage in community. There is a significant difference between the elective economic system these early believers chose for themselves and the often militarily enforced socialist and communistic systems feared by many in the western associated cultures. This early church aligned themselves along common values and because of it, everyones needs were met and their number was added to daily. They represented a better world view through a freedom of choice.

This type of system is extremely hard to implement in the current urbanized context of the world. Church members and fellow believers are spread about within a populace of vastly different perspectives and views. So besides some extremely radical and intentional behaviors, many do not see a path to replicating systems like this early church. Well guess what? This is exactly what cryptocurrencies and blockchain related technologies have the potential to provide.

Church members across the world now have the ability to unify their economic standing and increase the transparency of functionality and distribution of resources using custom development cryptocurrency protocols. These protocols can be used to design a decentralized organizations that reflect the faith of its members. Despite living blocks, cities, states away, the Church is capable of unifying under a common sense of how they should interact between each other and also mitigate fraud through the implementation of very clear processes. The best part is that the technology supporting this can be released in a way that reduces the overhead for maintenance and ongoing functionality.

Imagine being able to create a pool of funds between believers and also integrating a time dollar system where members within the pool are able to forego the modern expression of value and exchange their time as each has need. They would continue to accrue value through their work with those outside their system, but increase the circulation of value within the system by ascribing to a different base currency than that of the world around them. This radical departure from the existing systems has the ability to scale to billions or sustainable operate with a group of 3. It is a modern day system to realize the early church.

**Usury **

Another issue that plagues many lower income communities is predatory lending and payday loans. The rates of interest assessed against these communities are so significant that many families find themselves unable to dig themselves out of their financial holes. There are examples of effective interest rates at 400%! This is unacceptable and in part represent the same type of departure from ways faith communities have aligned themselves in the past and some currently. There are examples in the Quran against what some call Riba Usury and in the old testament, potentially impacting Jewish and Christian communities

Old Testament / Septuagint
Nehemiah 5
6 Then I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words [of accusation]. 7 I thought it over and then challenged the nobles and the rulers. I said to them, "You are exacting usury (excessive interest) from your own brother (relative)." So I held a great assembly to confront them. 8 I said to them, "According to our ability we have redeemed (purchased back) our Jewish brothers who were sold to the [Gentile] nations; now would you even sell your brothers, that they might be sold to us?" Then they were silent and could not find a [single] word to say. 9 So I said, "What you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunting by the [pagan] nations, our enemies? 10 And likewise I, my brothers, and my servants are lending them money and grain. Please, let us stop [charging] this interest. 11 Please, give back to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, and also a hundredth part of the money, the grain, the new wine, and the oil that you are lending them."

and

Quran
Surah 2 Al-Baqarah, Ayat 275–279
Those who consume interest cannot stand [on the Day of Resurrection] except as one stands who is being beaten by Satan into insanity. That is because they say, 'Trade is [just] like interest.' But Allah has permitted trade and has forbidden interest.... Allah destroys interest and gives increase for charities. And Allah does not like every sinning disbeliever. Indeed, those who believe and do righteous deeds and establish prayer and give Zakah will have their reward with their Lord, and there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve. O you who have believed, fear Allah and give up what remains [due to you] of interest, if you should be believers. And if you do not, then be informed of a war [against you] from Allah and His Messenger. But if you repent, you may have your principal - [thus] you do no wrong, nor are you wronged.''

These examples are clear protocols and systems that can be difficult to upheld in a system where many financial systems don't reflect these values. This is another example of where blockchain and cryptocurrency implementations can play a part. Through the establishment of transaction histories and the automated enforcement protocols, it is possible to restrict or eliminate functionality that supports usury.

The core functions of a modernized system to support faith based elective economic systems could legitimately be the best practices to align believers. So people in the system could choose alternative systems, such as revenue sharing or even the implementation of periodic periods of Jubilee were debts are released. In the case or Muslim communities, sharia compliance at scale is possible. These are systems that don't necessarily make sense to express through existing governments, but are extremely viable as a source of establishing modern faith based communities that strive to align themselves with each other in a way that brings glory to the Most High.

**My Final Thoughts As a Christian ** I want to live in a world where I can support others within the family with minimal friction and a solid basis of trust. I want to help build that world with others. If you are interested in a vision where we revive the Acts 2 church using all the technology available to us, please reach out to me and share with Pastors and other cultural leaders. I want to have this conversation and I believe it is more important to have now than ever. I am also working to restructure my podcast, Crypto at Nite, to have some conversations with Faith Leaders about what this could look like and how these things work under the hood. Reach out to me on twitter or LinkedIn.

Twitter - @jomari_p Linkedin - http://linkedin.com/in/jomari

As a follower of Christ and believer in the Bible, there seems to be a conversation that seems to be missing within the Church . This is a serious conversation about Cryptocurrency and Blockchain and how it can help further their mission and strengthen their communities. The lack of this conversation is absolutely detrimental to to the development of the modern church.

The first issue many church leaders face in regards to understanding the benefits of these technologies is a lack of understand of what they are. Within the post I hope to provide a succinct introduction and a few examples of how they can be used to achieve organizational goals of the church.

**The BONES **First I want to unravel two of the terms I have used above that get people lost upfront.

Blockchain — A way of organizing data so that new information builds upon the past information. A visualization I like to walk people through is to imagine you have an envelope. You write down how much money someone owes you. Then you wrap that envelope up and write a new transaction that occurred on the new envelope. Then you repeat over and over again, letter over letter, transaction over transaction. Over time you start to have a chain of letters inside of each other. This chain of letters provides the basis for a provable history where someone tampering with it would be evident. This is analogous to how blockchain operates.

Cryptocurrency- a digital currency that is secured with cryptography. The value of cryptocurrencies establish their value through a variety of means. However, at its core, the value comes from two aspects from my understanding. The 1st first is the ability for users to securely exchange digital currency and assets while minimizing middle men. The 2nd is through the agreement of value by a community of people who engage in the marketplace. Blockchain is one of the tools used to make some cryptocurrencies work. There are a number of other tools that work together to make cryptocurrencies work. Outlining these components is another conversation.

Now that we have two basic terms broken out, lets get into the meat of how cryptocurrencies and/or blockchain can be used to the benefit of faith communities.

The MEAT As believers, we pledge our allegiance to G-d and then to the people of G-d. We believe that there is order to the world, whether seen or unseen. This is the same type of order we attempt to create in our relationships. We create hierarchies and cultural traditions to better operate as a society under G-d.

Historically, these communities existed as a system unto themselves and reflected every part of life for its members. However, as the foundation for organizations scaled up, the ability for believers to continue to operate in accordance with their ideals faltered. The desire to create inclusive environments while maintaining the cohesiveness of the faith community (Body of Christ for those who are Christians) created a platform for people to opt out of the established culture. In doing so, many faith communities also lost the ability to efficiently realign themselves. The ability to manage an organization in accordance to commonly ascribed values is an endeavor that is outside of the scope of many churches, mosques, synagogues, etc. This is not what Pastors/Rabbis/Imams have focused their message on providing. Primarily due to the resources it would take to implement and manage in a reasonable way. Also, accountability is difficult. This is where cryptocurrency and blockchain related technologies play a part. Cryptocurrencies a structured protocols that allow the participants in the network to establish and operate in a manner of shared values. The value of cryptocurrencies reflect the values of its users. Therefore, faith based communities can create systems and protocols for their members in a robust and transparent way.

The Acts 2 Church Many times during my faith journey I found myself disappointed and frustrated with the way the Church operated. However, I have been able to experience glimpses of the beauty of what the Church could be; in the support I had as a kid growing up at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church to the close knit community of Bible Center in adulthood. These experiences are one of the reasons I have probably invested more time in the Book of Acts than any other book. In Acts there is a beautiful description of how one Early Christian community operated.

ACTS 2 41 So then, those who accepted his message were baptized; and on that day about 3,000 souls were added [to the body of believers]. 42 They were continually and faithfully devoting themselves to the instruction of the apostles, and to fellowship, to eating meals together and to prayers. 43 A sense of awe was felt by everyone, and many wonders and signs (attesting miracles) were taking place through the apostles. 44 And all those who had believed [in Jesus as Savior] were together and had all things in common [considering their possessions to belong to the group as a whole]. 45 And they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing the proceeds with all [the other believers], as anyone had need. 46 Day after day they met in the temple [area] continuing with one mind, and breaking bread in various private homes. They were eating their meals together with joy and generous hearts, 47 praising God continually, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord kept adding to their number daily those who were being saved.

What always blew my mind about this scripture was the direct relationship between belief and making a choice to engage in community. There is a significant difference between the elective economic system these early believers chose for themselves and the often militarily enforced socialist and communistic systems feared by many in the western associated cultures. This early church aligned themselves along common values and because of it, everyones needs were met and their number was added to daily. They represented a better world view through a freedom of choice.

This type of system is extremely hard to implement in the current urbanized context of the world. Church members and fellow believers are spread about within a populace of vastly different perspectives and views. So besides some extremely radical and intentional behaviors, many do not see a path to replicating systems like this early church. Well guess what? This is exactly what cryptocurrencies and blockchain related technologies have the potential to provide.

Church members across the world now have the ability to unify their economic standing and increase the transparency of functionality and distribution of resources using custom development cryptocurrency protocols. These protocols can be used to design a decentralized organizations that reflect the faith of its members. Despite living blocks, cities, states away, the Church is capable of unifying under a common sense of how they should interact between each other and also mitigate fraud through the implementation of very clear processes. The best part is that the technology supporting this can be released in a way that reduces the overhead for maintenance and ongoing functionality.

Imagine being able to create a pool of funds between believers and also integrating a time dollar system where members within the pool are able to forego the modern expression of value and exchange their time as each has need. They would continue to accrue value through their work with those outside their system, but increase the circulation of value within the system by ascribing to a different base currency than that of the world around them. This radical departure from the existing systems has the ability to scale to billions or sustainable operate with a group of 3. It is a modern day system to realize the early church.

**Usury **

Another issue that plagues many lower income communities is predatory lending and payday loans. The rates of interest assessed against these communities are so significant that many families find themselves unable to dig themselves out of their financial holes. There are examples of effective interest rates at 400%! This is unacceptable and in part represent the same type of departure from ways faith communities have aligned themselves in the past and some currently. There are examples in the Quran against what some call Riba Usury and in the old testament, potentially impacting Jewish and Christian communities

Old Testament / Septuagint
Nehemiah 5
6 Then I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words [of accusation]. 7 I thought it over and then challenged the nobles and the rulers. I said to them, "You are exacting usury (excessive interest) from your own brother (relative)." So I held a great assembly to confront them. 8 I said to them, "According to our ability we have redeemed (purchased back) our Jewish brothers who were sold to the [Gentile] nations; now would you even sell your brothers, that they might be sold to us?" Then they were silent and could not find a [single] word to say. 9 So I said, "What you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunting by the [pagan] nations, our enemies? 10 And likewise I, my brothers, and my servants are lending them money and grain. Please, let us stop [charging] this interest. 11 Please, give back to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, and also a hundredth part of the money, the grain, the new wine, and the oil that you are lending them."

and

Quran
Surah 2 Al-Baqarah, Ayat 275–279
Those who consume interest cannot stand [on the Day of Resurrection] except as one stands who is being beaten by Satan into insanity. That is because they say, 'Trade is [just] like interest.' But Allah has permitted trade and has forbidden interest.... Allah destroys interest and gives increase for charities. And Allah does not like every sinning disbeliever. Indeed, those who believe and do righteous deeds and establish prayer and give Zakah will have their reward with their Lord, and there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve. O you who have believed, fear Allah and give up what remains [due to you] of interest, if you should be believers. And if you do not, then be informed of a war [against you] from Allah and His Messenger. But if you repent, you may have your principal - [thus] you do no wrong, nor are you wronged.''

These examples are clear protocols and systems that can be difficult to upheld in a system where many financial systems don't reflect these values. This is another example of where blockchain and cryptocurrency implementations can play a part. Through the establishment of transaction histories and the automated enforcement protocols, it is possible to restrict or eliminate functionality that supports usury.

The core functions of a modernized system to support faith based elective economic systems could legitimately be the best practices to align believers. So people in the system could choose alternative systems, such as revenue sharing or even the implementation of periodic periods of Jubilee were debts are released. In the case or Muslim communities, sharia compliance at scale is possible. These are systems that don't necessarily make sense to express through existing governments, but are extremely viable as a source of establishing modern faith based communities that strive to align themselves with each other in a way that brings glory to the Most High.

**My Final Thoughts As a Christian ** I want to live in a world where I can support others within the family with minimal friction and a solid basis of trust. I want to help build that world with others. If you are interested in a vision where we revive the Acts 2 church using all the technology available to us, please reach out to me and share with Pastors and other cultural leaders. I want to have this conversation and I believe it is more important to have now than ever. I am also working to restructure my podcast, Crypto at Nite, to have some conversations with Faith Leaders about what this could look like and how these things work under the hood. Reach out to me on twitter or LinkedIn.

Twitter - @jomari_p Linkedin - http://linkedin.com/in/jomari