An article by Filip Martinka, analyzing the behaviour of bitcoin enthusiasts, comes to the conclusion that many of them can only be accurately described as zealots and fanatics. Curiously, bitcoin adversaries do not seem any more logical.  

The cult of bitcoin, accоrding to Martinka, has lots in common with such religions as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and the personality cult of Kim Il-Sung in North Korea. The nebulous figure of Satoshi is the Creator: “Satoshi said let there be light, and his creation became eternal”. The early adopters, investors, programmers become cult figures: for instance, Roger Ver is known as “Bitcoin Jesus”, individuals like Gavin Andresen and Vitalik Buterin are seen by the faithful as priests or magicians.

Similarly to many sectarians, early bitcoin adopters are often anarchists, says the author. They hate the government and the banks, ‘stuck in sins’. But their actions are purely spiritual: bitcoin, for them, is a panacea that would somehow overthrow the banks and dismantle the government, acting on its own. They are confirmed in their belief by the fact that bitcoin died 71 times (cf. Bitcoin Obituaries) just to resurrect again and again.

Curiously enough, bitcoin enthusiasts try to reconcile their religion with the traditional ones. Sometimes it does not work: a group of Catholics bеlieve bitcoin is the mark of the Beast of Apocalypse. Sometimes it does: Muslim bitcoiners сlaim the cryptocurrency is fully compliant with Sharia, unlike Dollars or Euros.

The author cites many examples of illogical behaviour of bitcoin believers. They invested their last savings in Mt. Gox and Paycoin when everything was already obvious. They “rally for or against side-chains and block size changes”, with violence and “glint in their eyes” while “99% of them understand neither”, often just repeating the words of a bitcoin prophet they chose to follow.

And even outside the bitcoin community the logic seems to disappear, says the author. “Some love the blockchain, but not the currency, while completely disregarding that you can't have one without the other.” “Some would refuse Bitcoin even well after every single merchant on earth is using it.”

Filip Martinka believes such a view of cryptocurrency comes from “our natural tendencies to perceive attributes of money and value as inherently magic and spiritual”.