Bitcoin for Spiritual Seekers: The Dao of Money with Scott Dedels
- DJ Valerie B LOVE 🩷
- 2 days ago
- 10 min read
Why Bitcoin and Ancient Spirituality Point to the Same Truth
What happens when you combine ancient spiritual wisdom with the hardest money ever invented? You get The Dao of Bitcoin. In this soul-expanding episode, I sit down with Scott Dedels to discuss why Bitcoin isn't just a financial technology—it's a spiritual tool that can heal our relationship with time, energy, and the present moment.
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✨ Key Takeaways
1. Pre-Bitcoiners are actually pre-Daoists—many spiritual seekers are unintentionally practicing Bitcoin philosophy
"I think a lot of Bitcoiners are actually pre-Daoists because a lot of the ideas—if you've really embodied and learned the things—Bitcoin changes the way you think about everything. And it just so happens that a lot of the things that change in you are the same sorts of things that Daoists appreciate and spend time pondering." — Scott Dedels
2. Inflation is literally theft of your time and energy, not just financial value
"Money really is just a representation of energy and time. I need to spend my time and my energy to get money. You do the same. We use this thing so that we can trade our time and energy with each other. So it's not actually financial value that's being stolen from us. It is our finite time and our energy." — Scott Dedels
3. Fiat money is an extractive system; Bitcoin is constructive—this distinction matters spiritually
Most spiritual seekers feel energetic blocks around money without understanding why. The truth: they've been adopted into a monetary system that operates in a way that makes abundance impossible. A sound money system removes this energetic distortion.
4. Bitcoin gives us the "rules not rulers" that Daoism teaches through the procedural nature of math
The Dao is procedural. It has no leaders. Neither does Bitcoin. Both operate on principles that are universal, unchangeable, and accessible to all. This is what makes Bitcoin spiritually revolutionary—it's not subject to human manipulation or corruption.
5. The Dao solves the binary problem: you can be present AND secure simultaneously
Daoism teaches presence in the now. Traditional money forces you to choose: be anxious about the future or live without security. Bitcoin's fixed supply removes the anxiety, allowing you to finally be present without abandoning your family's future.
6. Earning Bitcoin changes your relationship to money more than buying Bitcoin ever will
"You're more likely to spend something you've earned rather than something you bought because you think it's going to appreciate in price. People who earn Bitcoin understand it as money first, investment second." — Scott Dedels
Episode Overview
In this intimate conversation, I sit down with Scott Dedels—author, entrepreneur, and founder of Block Rewards—to explore the fascinating intersection of Daoism, spirituality, and Bitcoin. Scott shares his journey from the traditional financial world to discovering how fiat currency essentially steals our time and energy, creating a background hum of anxiety in our lives.
We dive deep into the philosophy of money: how inflation forces us onto a "hamster wheel," keeping us from the present moment, and how Bitcoin acts as a "giant metronome" synchronizing human consciousness. Scott explains the core concept of his book, The Dao of Bitcoin, and why "pre-coiners" are often just "pre-Daoists" looking for the natural order of things.
From the objectivity of math (1+1=2) to the impermanence of Burning Man, this conversation bridges the gap between your wallet and your soul. Discover how fixing the money can help fix your inner peace.
About Scott Dedels
Scott Dedels is the founder of Block Rewards, a company dedicated to helping employers integrate Bitcoin into payroll and compensation strategies. He is also the author of The Dao of Bitcoin and Bitcoin for Financial Advisors.
With a background in traditional financial services, compensation, and pension planning, Scott "fell down the rabbit hole" in 2020. He now combines his financial expertise with deep philosophical insights, helping people understand Bitcoin not just as an investment, but as a tool for preserving life energy and achieving tranquility.
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⏱️ Episode Timestamps
(00:00:00) Intro: Meeting a spiritual seeker and Bitcoiner
(00:02:15) Scott’s Origin Story: From pension consulting to The Price of Tomorrow (00:04:51) What is Block Rewards? Earning vs. Buying Bitcoin
(00:11:37) "Time in the market" vs. "Timing the market"
(00:17:00) The Dao of Bitcoin: Merging ancient philosophy with modern money
(00:25:50) The Theft of Time: How inflation steals your life energy
(00:30:00) What is Daoism? Understanding the procedural nature of reality
(00:32:55) Math as a Grounding Force: Why 1+1=2 is spiritual safety
(00:38:58) DEFINITION: "The Dao of Bitcoin is a sense of tranquility..."
(00:49:15) Consumerism, Dopamine Loops, and the throwaway culture
(00:57:40) Burning Man & Bitcoin: Parallels of impermanence and gift economy
(01:06:00) Resources & Where to find Scott
🙋♀️ Common Questions About Bitcoin, Spirituality, and Daoism
Is Daoism a religion? Can I practice it alongside my own faith?
No, Daoism is a spiritual tradition and philosophy, not a religion. It has no leaders, no dogma that conflicts with other faiths. The Dao describes an underlying universal principle that connects all things—a concept compatible with Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and secular worldviews. The Dao is procedural, not prescriptive.
How is inflation really "theft of time and energy"?
When you earn money, you're trading your time and energy for it. When inflation erodes that money's purchasing power, the system is stealing the value of the time and energy you spent earning it. A worker in 2020 earning $10/hour couldn't buy the same amount of groceries in 2025 with that same hourly wage. That's theft of the fruits of their labor.
Why should I earn Bitcoin instead of just buying it?
Behaviorally and psychologically, earning Bitcoin changes your relationship to it. You see it as compensation for work—as money—rather than as a speculative asset. People who earn Bitcoin understand it as a medium of exchange first and a store of value second. This mental shift is crucial for adoption and long-term holding.
Can I really run a business on Bitcoin, or isn't the tax reporting too complicated?
It's complicated now, especially in jurisdictions like Canada and the US where every Bitcoin transaction is a taxable event. However, Scott expects regulatory change within years. What matters is: if you're already running tight margins (6-8% profit), converting Bitcoin to fiat to pay bills creates capital gains taxes that crush profitability. This is solvable through time-in-market strategy and legal innovation.
Should I put retirement savings in Bitcoin or an RRSP/401k?
Scott argues: if you have the discipline to self-custody and hold Bitcoin without panic-selling, Bitcoin is superior to RRSPs/401ks. Here's why: RRSPs are tax-deferred, not tax-free. When you withdraw, you pay income tax at whatever the future rate is (could be higher than today). Plus, in Canada, you can't self-custody Bitcoin in an RRSP—only hold Bitcoin ETFs, losing the sovereignty benefit.
What's the connection between presence and sound money?
Fiat money creates constant anxiety about the future—will you have enough? Will inflation destroy your savings? This anxiety activates your fight-or-flight response and pulls you out of the present moment. Bitcoin's fixed supply removes this anxiety. You can plan for the future without sacrificing presence right now.
How does the "procedural nature" of Daoism relate to Bitcoin?
The Dao operates procedurally—constantly in motion, eternally returning to center, with no central authority directing it. Bitcoin works the same way: tick-tock, next block, every 10 minutes, no CEO deciding to change the rules. Both systems trust the process instead of trusting people.
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📚 Resources & Links Mentioned
Book Recommendation: The Price of Tomorrow by Jeff Booth (The book that Orange-pilled Scott)
Concept: The "Dao De Jing" ("Tao Te Ching" classic Taoist text; authorship uncertain—like Bitcoin's Satoshi)
📜 Full Episode Transcript
DJ Valerie: Hey, Aloha Love Tribe. Happy Thankful Thursday. I have somebody here with me who is a spiritual seeker just like many of you listening. He is also a Bitcoiner and entrepreneur. He's the founder of Block Rewards, author of The Dao of Bitcoin and Bitcoin for Financial Advisors, and the host of the Block Reward podcast. Welcome, Scott Dedels. How's it going, my brother?
Scott Dedels: It's going very well. Thank you so much for having me on. It's great to be here.
DJ Valerie: You just got back from Australia, right?
Scott: Yeah, I love Australia. I was down there speaking at Bitcoin Alive, which is the premier Australian Bitcoin event. I love Bitcoin conferences, and combining that with a trip was so much fun.
DJ Valerie: Let's let the audience know who you are and how you got here. I saw you went to Hawaii Pacific, and you have a background in finance.
Scott: Yes, I lived in Honolulu for two years as a grad student. I’m Canadian, so eventually, I landed back in Canada and got into financial services. I spent 15 years working in compensation, rewards, and pension plan consulting.
Then in 2020, the government started printing a lot of money and forcing us to stay home. My Bitcoin origin story started there. I turned off Netflix and started wondering what all this money printing meant for pension portfolios. I started reading economics textbooks, and Amazon recommended The Price of Tomorrow by Jeff Booth. That book got me. I spent the rest of the lockdown voraciously reading every Bitcoin book I could.
I realized we are moving towards a world where people will not want to work for fiat money. Block Rewards is a company dedicated to payroll and HR tools that run on Bitcoin only, helping companies and staff earn in Bitcoin.
DJ Valerie: How is Block Rewards different from other platforms?
Scott: We focus on the idea that people should simply earn Bitcoin. In places like Latin America, people already prefer to earn in US dollars if the local money has failed. I feel us in the Western world should be thinking the same way. If we have the choice, it makes more sense today to earn Bitcoin. So we focus on "pay in Bitcoin" rather than just "plan for retirement with Bitcoin."
DJ Valerie: Many entrepreneurs push back on this because of capital gains taxes and accounting headaches. How do you address that fear?
Scott: It comes down to the difference between timing the market and time in the market. If you aren't storing your wealth in Bitcoin, you are likely doing something else complicated to preserve it—like running an Airbnb side hustle or day trading stocks. Bitcoin is actually the simplest way to plan for the future without needing to do all that extra risky stuff. The math says over time, you should be winning more with Bitcoin than any other way.
DJ Valerie: Let’s talk about your book, The Dao of Bitcoin. How did you get from the financial world to writing about spirituality and Bitcoin?
Scott: I was introduced to Daoism in university through a book called The Tao of the Jump Shot when I was a basketball player. Later, I spent a year teaching English in central China, which profoundly impacted me.
When I started learning about Bitcoin, I immediately saw the connection. I joke that many "pre-coiners" are actually "pre-Daoists." Bitcoin changes the way you think about everything—time preference, why we are here, and how we interact. It just so happens that the things that change in you are the same things Daoists appreciate and ponder.
DJ Valerie: For those listening who might not know, what is the Dao? Is it a religion?
Scott: It’s a spiritual tradition, but I don’t think it’s at odds with traditional religions. The belief is that there is a central, underlying, universal force or principle that guides physical reality and connects all things. Intrinsic to its nature is that it is procedural. Everything is constantly in motion, but it’s always a return trip back to the Dao—like how seasons always return to winter.
DJ Valerie: I love that you say "procedural nature." Math is so grounding. 1+1=2. Bitcoin is math; it's "tick-tock, next block." It’s objective, unlike the human condition which is subjective and messy.
Scott: Exactly. That is the gap between subjectivity and objectivity. Once things become subjective, we are left to our own interpretations, which causes anxiety. In the case of money, we are all on individual hamster wheels spinning faster and faster because the game is rigged to get harder. Bitcoin provides an objective reality.
DJ Valerie: How has this realization changed your daily life?
Scott: I don't think about the future with anxiety anymore. I have a definition in the book: The Dao of Bitcoin is a sense of tranquility that accompanies a comprehension of energy money.
When you truly grasp what it means to have a financial tool that preserves your time and energy, the paralyzing anxiety about the future—which is rooted in the theft of your time via inflation—disappears. Inflation isn't just stealing value; it's stealing the time and energy you spent to earn that money. When you remove that theft, you can actually exist in the present moment.
DJ Valerie: We are being hijacked by stress chemicals and dopamine loops from social media and mainstream media.
Scott: Yes, we are seeing a compression of attention spans. But you cannot speed Bitcoin up. It acts like a giant metronome, standardizing the human perception of time and synchronizing human consciousness. We can’t help but eventually click into that same rhythm.
DJ Valerie: We live in a throwaway culture—plastic cups, fast fashion, even relationships via text. It’s the opposite of nature.
Scott: It’s a disposable world. When everything becomes disposable, we start to think of ourselves and other people as disposable. Daoism teaches Wu Wei (effortless action)—not rowing against the stream, but not trying to row faster than the river flows either.
DJ Valerie: Speaking of impermanence, are you going to Burning Man?
Scott: I am! It will be my first burn this year.
DJ Valerie: Burning Man is impermanence at its finest. You build these massive art structures and then burn them down. It teaches you to be in the "now" because legacy doesn't really exist—it's all temporary. And it’s a gift economy, not a barter economy.
Scott: I’m excited about the preparation. In Daoism, gratitude is intertwined with understanding impermanence. When you understand that nothing lasts—whether it's aging or wealth—you become more connected with what you do have right now.
DJ Valerie: You are going to love it. I will connect you with the Lamplighters for the procession.
DJ Valerie: Scott, where can people find you and your book?
Scott: You can find me on X (Twitter) at @lanternbitcoin. "Lantern" comes from my time in China—it’s an old way of illuminating things. You can also find me on LinkedIn under Scott Dedels or look up Block Rewards at blockrewards.ca. The book, The Dao of Bitcoin, is available on Amazon.
DJ Valerie: Thank you so much for spending this time with us. It’s been an incredible conversation about the intersection of spirituality, philosophy, and Bitcoin.
Scott: Thank you, Val. I love hearing from people who read the book, so please reach out!
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