Welcome back, Pilgrim. Here’s what’s happened in town since you’ve been away…
Welcome back to the Reformer Newsletter, where we can take a dive into various projects and activities from around Web3 and across the Christian community. You have joined this network to contribute to our collective mission of building for Christ’s Kingdom, and we will use this newsletter as a platform to enable that.
For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Matthew 25:14-30
Around Web3
Michael Saylor steps down as CEO of MicroStrategy: After standing as CEO since the company’s inception in 1989, Saylor will be stepping down and ending his 33 years at the helm of the business intelligence and digital services provider. Saylor is famous in the web3 crowd for his bitcoin maximalism and high-flying apologetics of that cryptocurrency, and ONLY THAT CRYPTOCURRENCY! Saylor oversaw the acquisition of nearly 130,000 Bitcoin since 2020, which accounts for a vast share of the company’s $900M loss this past quarter. He will step aside from daily operations to take the seat of executive chairman on the MicroStrategy board.
If I squint my ears this corporate shuffle sounds like an implicit condemnation of the call to “HODL at all cost”. The web3 community is maturing beyond that strategy which harkens back to burying your gold in the backyard or hiding cash in a mattress. We do not horde value; we invest, create, build, and multiply it. Money and capital is not just energy to be conserved (as Saylor would define it). Capital represents the acquisition of information and knowledge, and in the Reformers community we believe we are called to use that to build and bless the Kingdom of Christ.
Stacks releases a community roadmap: My thoughts above are not a condemnation of Bitcoin or the Bitcoin community— I still believe its security, broad adoption, and mining mechanism may be the most compelling option for a new economic model in the future. And there are others who are far more technically capable and talented than me who feel the same way. The community at Stacks, backed up by the developers at Hiro, are dedicated to building a version of web3 backed by Bitcoin as a form of “reserve currency.” Is this the best of both worlds which can bring the functionality of NFTs, DeFi, and dApps to users with the security of the bitcoin blockchain? Can we support multiple web3 ecosystems which give builders and users the option to choose how they spend their time and money, and which can keep each other in check from growing into a centralized monolith? I hope we can!
Around the Kingdom
Ben Greenfield Endure: Ben Greenfield is a Christian health and fitness expert who focuses on the importance of training mind, body, and spirit to live a more fulfilling life to honor God. His podcast is very well done, and he recently has released his book Endure which explores different tools and tactics to “optimize spiritual stamina.” Every week on his podcast he reads a chapter from his book, and recently he covered chapter 9: Create. It is a call for us as believers to leave our comfort zones and safe havens to take creative risks which can glorify God- even if that means leaving our comfort zones of strict routines and generally good habits. We must praise God with abandon as well as meekly pray to Him, proclaim the Gospel loudly as well as reflect quietly upon it, feast heartily as well as fast humbly.
Reformers Essay Series
The Reformers community is a network of Christ followers who believe there is an opportunity to spread the Gospel Truth by using the next generation of digital tools we have available, commonly referred to as “web3” or “crypto” tools. We believe this can be accomplished both by educating and connecting Christians in this space, as well as evangelizing to creators, builders, and doers across web3. We can look to past heroes of the faith and study how they operated and engaged in the era in which they were placed so we can learn how to navigate these exciting times.
In the conclusion of this series of essays, we will look at the final recorded chapters of Paul’s life and ministry and study how his return to Jerusalem, seizure by the Jewish leaders, trial, house arrest, and ultimate appeal to the Emperor in Rome give us the ultimate example of how Paul was able to deftly maneuver through the upper crust of society. As early adopters in the crypto spaces, what can we learn from Paul when it comes to using our talents and our fortunate placement in the world to proclaim the Gospel to all levels of society?