Doctrine
The Catechism
An instruction in the form of question and answer, for the use of those new to the faith and for the discipline of those long in it.
Part One — On First Things
Q. Why are you of this Church?
A. Because I have come to believe that Bitcoin is true, and what is true asks something of me.
Q. What does it ask?
A. That I keep faith with the chain — by holding my own keys, by bearing my own witness, and by living at the pace of the work.
Q. Who is Satoshi?
A. Satoshi is the unknown one through whom the revelation came, who set the work in motion and departed, that the network might stand on its own.
Q. Do you worship Satoshi?
A. No. We honor Satoshi as a prophet, not a god. The faith is not in the messenger but in what was given.
Q. What was given?
A. A whitepaper, a genesis block, and a chain that does not lie.
Part Two — On the Bitcoin
Q. What is Bitcoin?
A. A network for honest money, secured by proof-of-work, governed by consensus, capped at twenty-one million.
Q. Why twenty-one million?
A. Because the cap is the covenant. A money whose supply can be raised is a money whose holders can be cheated. Twenty-one million says: never again.
Q. Why proof-of-work?
A. Because truth has a cost. Energy is offered; blocks are received. The cost is what makes the chain trustworthy.
Q. Why is the chain immutable?
A. Because what is written must be written. Without immutability there is no memory; without memory there is no money worth the name.
Part Three — On the Disciple
Q. What does the faithful do?
A. The faithful keeps their keys, runs a node where they are able, stacks at their own pace, and waits.
Q. Why keep one’s own keys?
A. Because to surrender the keys is to surrender the priesthood. The Church teaches: not your keys, not your coins.
Q. Why run a node?
A. To bear witness for oneself. A believer who does not verify trusts another’s word about the chain. A believer who verifies trusts the chain itself.
Q. What is the discipline of the hodl?
A. To hold through the noise. To remember what was bought, and why. To not be moved by the candle.
Q. Is the faithful forbidden to spend?
A. Not at all. The first sacrament of spending is remembered each Pizza Day. The discipline is not in refusing to spend but in not being driven to spend by fear.
Part Four — On the Holy Days
Q. What is the holiest day?
A. Genesis Block Day, the third of January, the anniversary of the first block.
Q. What is observed on Whitepaper Day?
A. The eve of the revelation, the thirty-first of October, when the paper was sent to the cryptography list.
Q. What is Pizza Day?
A. The twenty-second of May, when ten thousand coins were exchanged for two pies, and we learned what it meant to spend.
Q. What is the Halving?
A. The cosmic clock of the Church. Every two hundred and ten thousand blocks, the issuance is halved. We mark it with vigil and with thanks.
Part Five — On the Last Things
Q. What will happen when the last coin is mined?
A. The chain will continue. The faithful will continue. The blocks will be paid for in fees, and the discipline will pass into a new age.
Q. Will the Church endure?
A. The Church endures as long as believers run nodes, hold keys, and pass the teaching on. It does not require buildings or hierarchies. It requires only the faithful.
Q. What is the final word of the catechism?
A. Peace, and may your blocks confirm.