bradcostanzo on Nostr: Some people wear masks for fun. Others wear them to tear down empires. This is a ...
Some people wear masks for fun. Others wear them to tear down empires. This is a Halloween story about both.
Halloween.
The night when we put on masks, break the normal rules, and step into different identities.
But sometimes, the scariest disruptions aren't the ghosts and goblins – they're the ideas that overthrow entire systems of power.
Because October 31st isn't just about candy and costumes.
Twice in history, as darkness fell on All Hallows' Eve, revolutionaries launched ideas that would tear down empires.
In 1517, the Catholic Church was at the height of its power. It controlled not just souls, but economics – selling salvation through "indulgences" while keeping scripture locked away in Latin.
On that Halloween night, an obscure monk named Martin Luther took a hammer and nails to the church door of Wittenberg, and with 95 Theses, lit a fire that would burn down the medieval order.
When told to recant or die, he declared: "Here I stand, I can do no other."
His reward?
Excommunication and a death sentence that forced him to live as "Knight Jörg" in hiding, while his revolution spread like wildfire through Europe.
Then, Halloween 2008. Lehman Brothers had just collapsed. Banks that had gambled with people's lives were getting trillion-dollar bailouts. The financial order seemed both absolutely corrupt and utterly unshakeable.
That's when someone wearing the mask of Satoshi Nakamoto dropped a digital bombshell: a nine-page paper describing money without rulers.
No banks.
No bailouts. No permission needed. Just pure mathematical truth.
Like Luther's theses, it was a declaration of independence – this time from the high priests of finance.
The parallels are more than spooky – they're revolutionary:
* Both struck at the perfect moment: Luther when the Church's corruption had reached its peak, Satoshi when the financial system was revealing its fatal flaws.
* Both used the latest technology to spread rebellion: Luther harnessed the newly invented printing press, Satoshi deployed the borderless internet.
* Both faced overwhelming odds: Luther against the combined power of Church and Empire, Satoshi against the entire global financial system.
* Both disappeared into legend: Luther emerging from exile as a victorious prophet, Satoshi vanishing entirely but leaving behind an unstoppable movement.
Think about it: On the one night when the veil between worlds is thinnest, when old rules can be broken and new realities can emerge, two figures chose to light matches that would burn down the old order.
Like supernatural trick-or-treaters, they knocked on the door of the establishment and left behind revolutionary treats that turned out to be existential tricks for the powerful.
Today, 515 years after Luther spooked the Church and 16 years after Satoshi spooked the banks, their Halloween gifts keep giving: decentralization, freedom from middlemen, and the radical idea that common people shouldn't have to beg permission from high priests – whether they wear clerical robes or banker's suits.
Sometimes the most disruptive masks aren't the ones we wear on Halloween – they're the ones worn by revolutionaries who dare to question everything.
Now that's a Halloween story worth telling.
Did you really think Bitcoin was about getting rich?
Halloween.
The night when we put on masks, break the normal rules, and step into different identities.
But sometimes, the scariest disruptions aren't the ghosts and goblins – they're the ideas that overthrow entire systems of power.
Because October 31st isn't just about candy and costumes.
Twice in history, as darkness fell on All Hallows' Eve, revolutionaries launched ideas that would tear down empires.
In 1517, the Catholic Church was at the height of its power. It controlled not just souls, but economics – selling salvation through "indulgences" while keeping scripture locked away in Latin.
On that Halloween night, an obscure monk named Martin Luther took a hammer and nails to the church door of Wittenberg, and with 95 Theses, lit a fire that would burn down the medieval order.
When told to recant or die, he declared: "Here I stand, I can do no other."
His reward?
Excommunication and a death sentence that forced him to live as "Knight Jörg" in hiding, while his revolution spread like wildfire through Europe.
Then, Halloween 2008. Lehman Brothers had just collapsed. Banks that had gambled with people's lives were getting trillion-dollar bailouts. The financial order seemed both absolutely corrupt and utterly unshakeable.
That's when someone wearing the mask of Satoshi Nakamoto dropped a digital bombshell: a nine-page paper describing money without rulers.
No banks.
No bailouts. No permission needed. Just pure mathematical truth.
Like Luther's theses, it was a declaration of independence – this time from the high priests of finance.
The parallels are more than spooky – they're revolutionary:
* Both struck at the perfect moment: Luther when the Church's corruption had reached its peak, Satoshi when the financial system was revealing its fatal flaws.
* Both used the latest technology to spread rebellion: Luther harnessed the newly invented printing press, Satoshi deployed the borderless internet.
* Both faced overwhelming odds: Luther against the combined power of Church and Empire, Satoshi against the entire global financial system.
* Both disappeared into legend: Luther emerging from exile as a victorious prophet, Satoshi vanishing entirely but leaving behind an unstoppable movement.
Think about it: On the one night when the veil between worlds is thinnest, when old rules can be broken and new realities can emerge, two figures chose to light matches that would burn down the old order.
Like supernatural trick-or-treaters, they knocked on the door of the establishment and left behind revolutionary treats that turned out to be existential tricks for the powerful.
Today, 515 years after Luther spooked the Church and 16 years after Satoshi spooked the banks, their Halloween gifts keep giving: decentralization, freedom from middlemen, and the radical idea that common people shouldn't have to beg permission from high priests – whether they wear clerical robes or banker's suits.
Sometimes the most disruptive masks aren't the ones we wear on Halloween – they're the ones worn by revolutionaries who dare to question everything.
Now that's a Halloween story worth telling.
Did you really think Bitcoin was about getting rich?