New in this edition of the book is a dedicated chapter about nostr with much more depth about Why it works, what is possible with it, and where it needs improvement. It's probably the first praxological treatise mentioning Nostr! View article → View quoted note →

I'm really happy how the preface and conclusion turned out. If you only have 10 minutes to read, start there. View quoted note →

Compared to this, the first version was very bad, sloppy logic all over the place. "If you're not embarrassed by your first release, you've released too late." Let's see how this one ages. View quoted note →

I finished the second version of my book! ## The Praxeology of Privacy ### Economic Logic in Cypherpunk Implementation Austrian economists theorize but cannot build. Cypherpunks build but lack theory. This book synthesizes both traditions into a unified strategy for making the state irrelevant. Three axioms. Twenty-one chapters. One conclusion: cheap defense defeats expensive attack. When theft becomes unprofitable, the state withers. Public Domain. v0.2.0. Published on Nostr. Thanks a lot to Stephan Kinsella and Eric Voskuil for their tough feedback on the first version, please join them in demolishing the logic of this second edition and help me make the arguments better! --- Table of Contents Preface Austrian economists theorize but cannot build. Cypherpunks build but lack theory. This book synthesizes both to make the state irrelevant. View article → Part I: Introduction Chapter 1: The Nature of Privacy Privacy is selective disclosure, not hiding. Breaking adversary observation through the OODA loop is strategic defense. Cheap privacy defeats expensive surveillance. View article → Chapter 2: Two Traditions, One Conclusion Austrian economics and cypherpunk practice converge independently on privacy's importance. Theory explains why; code demonstrates how. This book synthesizes both traditions. View article → Part II: Philosophical Foundations Chapter 3: The Action Axiom The Action Axiom proves privacy is structural to human action. Deliberation is internal; preferences are subjective; information asymmetry is inherent. View article → Chapter 4: The Argumentation Axiom Argumentation ethics demonstrates self-ownership through performative contradiction. Denying it while arguing presupposes it. Privacy rights follow directly from self-ownership. View article → Chapter 5: The Axiom of Resistance The Axiom of Resistance assumes systems can resist control. Mathematics, empirical evidence, and similar systems support this well-grounded but non-self-evident assumption. View article → Part III: Economic Foundations Chapter 6: Information, Scarcity, and Property Information is non-scarce and cannot be property. Privacy is protected through self-ownership, physical property rights, and voluntary contracts, not intellectual property. View article → Chapter 7: Exchange Theory and Privacy Privacy enhances exchange by protecting deliberation and enabling negotiation. Surveillance distorts prices and chills transactions. Better privacy means better functioning markets. View article → Chapter 8: Capital Theory and Entrepreneurship Privacy infrastructure is capital requiring present sacrifice for future capability. Entrepreneurial discovery drives innovation. Markets coordinate heterogeneous privacy tools most effectively. View article → Chapter 9: Monetary Theory and Sound Money Sound money emerges spontaneously from markets, not decrees. Bitcoin implements digital soundness with fixed supply and censorship resistance; privacy requires additional tools. View article → Part IV: The Adversary Chapter 10: Financial Surveillance and State Control Financial surveillance enables state control through observation. CBDCs complete the architecture. Privacy breaks the OODA loop at observation, making theft unprofitable. View article → Chapter 11: Corporate Surveillance and Data Extraction Corporate surveillance extracts behavioral data for prediction products. State and corporate surveillance are deeply entangled. Markets are responding to growing privacy demand. View article → Chapter 12: The Crypto Wars The Crypto Wars pit states against privacy technology. Mathematics ignores legislation. Developers face prosecution. The fundamental conflict is permanent and intensifying. View article → Part V: Technical Implementation Chapter 13: Cryptographic Foundations Cryptography provides mathematical privacy foundations: encryption, hashing, and digital signatures enable trustless verification. Implementation bugs and human error remain the weakest links. View article → Chapter 14: Anonymous Communication Networks The internet leaks metadata. VPNs help locally. Tor distributes trust through relays. Mixnets defeat global adversaries. Choose tools matching your threat model. View article → Chapter 15: Bitcoin: Resistance Money Bitcoin solves double-spending without trusted third parties. Sound money enforced by code. Base layer privacy requires additional tools like Lightning and coinjoin. View article → Chapter 16: Zero-Knowledge Proofs Zero-knowledge proofs enable verification without disclosure. SNARKs, STARKs, and Bulletproofs make different tradeoffs. Deployed in Zcash and rollups; broader adoption developing. View article → Chapter 17: Decentralized Social Infrastructure Nostr solves identity capture through cryptographic keys users control. Relays compete, moderation is market-driven, and the protocol extends beyond social posts. View article → Part VI: Praxis Chapter 18: Lessons from History DigiCash, e-gold, and Silk Road failed through centralization and poor OPSEC. Bitcoin succeeded through decentralization, open source, and properly aligned economic incentives. View article → Chapter 19: Operational Security Operational security prevents adversaries from gathering compromising information. Threat modeling guides defense. Human factors are the weakest link. Perfect OPSEC is impossible. View article → Chapter 20: Implementation Strategy Start with honest assessment. Build progressively from basics to advanced. Find community. Privacy is not a destination but ongoing practice. Progress matters. View article → Chapter 21: Building the Parallel Economy The parallel economy grows through counter-economics. Cheap defense defeats expensive attack. When theft becomes unprofitable, the state withers. Build. Trade. Resist. View article →

You've been trained since childhood to believe you cannot function without state permission and provision. The programming runs so deep that even reading this, you'll feel resistance to acting on it. But learned helplessness has a cure: you must demonstrate to yourself that you have control by actually exercising it. This post maps the escape routes. The only question is whether you'll take one. View article →

This is great, been in the works for a while. View article →

Privacy IS. Privacy OUGHT TO BE. Privacy CAN BE.

Phil Zimmermann's 1992 vision for decentralized trust collapsed under its own weight. Key signing parties, trust levels, keyring management: the people who most needed encrypted communication couldn't navigate the bureaucracy. Nostr inverts the model entirely. Every follow is an endorsement. Every mute is a warning. Every zap is an economic vote. Trust emerges from actions users already take, computed by tools like Vertex and npub.world into personalized reputation scores. The cypherpunk lesson: the best cryptographic systems are the ones users don't notice. View article →

Most resolutions dissolve by February. These are not those. They are not self-improvement projects or lifestyle optimizations. They are the ethical commitments that separate those who talk about freedom from those who live it. Seven principles, each actionable, together forming the foundation of a society built on consent rather than coercion. View article →

Money that can be surveilled and controlled is not sound money; it is a mechanism of intervention.

History remembers the revolutions that seized power. It forgets the quieter departures: the people who simply stopped showing up, stopped believing, stopped feeding the machine. The latter changed more. We are not marching on anything. We are walking away from everything that requires our compliance to exist, and building something that does not. View article →