🎙️ My guest today is Max Hillebrand, praxeologist, cypherpunk, and open-source advocate dedicated to building freedom tech that empowers individuals through economic and technological sovereignty. As a contributor to projects like Bitcoin Core, Wasabi Wallet, BTCPay Server, JoinMarket, Lightning Network, Bisq, Angor, White Noise, and Amethyst. In this episode, Max shares his journey from Austrian economics into Bitcoin privacy, recounting how tools like CoinJoins, Wasabi, and the Taproot upgrade push Bitcoin closer to true anonymity. We explore the battle between fiat and freedom, the broken incentives of inflation and war, and why opting into Bitcoin is both a moral imperative and a form of resistance. Max also introduces Nostr as the communications layer for a censorship-resistant future, explains the axioms of human action, argumentation ethics, and resistance, and highlights why he believes we now have the technological weapons to end modern financial slavery in our lifetime.
This episode is also on Twitter, Spotify, YouTube, Fountain, Rumble and more.
Got value? please like, comment, share & subscribe!
We talked about:
00:00 – Coming Up
01:23 – Intro to Max
05:56 – Max Passion for Austrian Economics
06:56 – Bitcoin: Bridging Economics with Computer Science
11:16 – Building Freedom Tech
14:16 – CoinJoin and Bitcoin Privacy
18:56 – Legal & Regulatory Challenges for Privacy Tech – Samurai, Tornado, Wasabi Wallet
26:36 – Why Is Privacy Important?
29:06 – Economics of Wars & The Broken Window Fallacy
41:23 – The Value of Cash and Fiat Currency
45:38 – Moving to a Bitcoin Standard & Influence on Businesses
50:03 – Max’s Take on Bitcoin Treasury Companies
52:03 – Nostr & Decentralized Protocols
1:00:03 – “White Noise” - Building Nostr Private Encrypted Messaging
1:04:48 – Austrian Economics Axioms: Human Action, Argumentation, Resistance
1:13:10 – Max’s Book Recommendations & Reasons to Stay Hopeful
My takeaways from this episode:
Max shares how his journey began in Austrian economics, inspired by Rothbard and Mises, and how he bridged monetary theory with free and open-source software, discovering Bitcoin as the practical realization of sound money
He recounts how his work evolved from producing educational content on the World Crypto Network to actively contributing to open-source projects like Wasabi Wallet, where he helped pioneer CoinJoin technology for Bitcoin privacy
Max explains how his leadership at zkSNACKs and collaboration with Trezor led to critical breakthroughs, including influencing the Taproot upgrade to make multi-party transactions secure on hardware wallets
He speaks candidly about the legal and personal risks faced by cypherpunk developers, from state harassment and banking shutdowns to targeted intimidation, framing privacy software as a frontline defense against coercion
Max dismantles the “nothing to hide” fallacy, arguing that privacy is essential to freedom, and explains how Bitcoin can be used anonymously through CoinJoins, while Lightning and Tor further expand the privacy toolkit
He outlines how fiat money and inflation fund endless wars, drawing on the broken window fallacy, “war is a racket,” and I added that the UN’s Build Back Better framework exposes how destruction creates perverse incentives for governments and corporations
Max argues that Bitcoin flips this dynamic by removing the money printer, making war financially unsustainable, and turning saving in Bitcoin into a peaceful protest that starves the war machine while enriching individuals
He introduces the three key Austrian axioms—human action, argumentation ethics, and resistance—showing how they provide a logical foundation for freedom, security, and ethical economics in a Bitcoin world
Max emphasizes that cash may be the “least bad” form of fiat for privacy, but only Bitcoin provides true financial sovereignty, enabling individuals to opt out of systemic theft and build parallel economies
He describes Nostr as the next frontier after money: a censorship-resistant protocol for communication, content, and payments, where anyone can build without permission and users control their identity, friends, and data
Max highlights the development of MLS-based encrypted group messaging on Nostr, which removes metadata surveillance and makes private communications scalable across clients
He frames Bitcoin and Nostr as complementary weapons of defense—sound money and free speech—giving individuals the tools to resist surveillance, censorship, and coercion
For Max, freedom is inseparable from resistance: by holding Bitcoin, using privacy tools, and communicating on open protocols, individuals can end modern financial slavery and reclaim sovereignty in their lifetime
The list of books Max recommended in this episode (except for the last two):
Human Action, Mises: https://mises.org/library/book/human-action
Economic Science and the Austrian Method, Hoppe: https://mises.org/library/book/economic-science-and-austrian-method
Cryptoeconomics - Fundamental Principles of Bitcoin, Voskuil: https://voskuil.org/cryptoeconomics/cryptoeconomics.pdf
And in audio book:
Watch/Listen on Spotify:
Watch/Listen on Youtube:
Follow Max Hillebrand:
Max's Website | Nostr: npub1klkk3vrzme455yh9rl2jshq7rc8dpegj3ndf82c3ks2sk40dxt7qulx3vt
Sponsors:
►► Get your TREZOR wallet & accessories, with a 5% discount, using my code at checkout (get my discount code from the episode - yep, you’ll have to watch it)
BitVault
►► Shield your bitcoin with time-delayed transactions over multisig with BitVault
Special offers:
►► 10% off on Augmented NAC: I arranged a 10% discount on the Augmented NAC from ZeroSpike, using the code: YCXKQDK2, and this link. (Please note, this is not medical advice and you should consult your MD). Watch the episode with Tina below.
►► Watch “New Totalitarian Order” conference with Prof. Mattias Desmet & Efrat - use code EFRAT for 10% off
►► Get a second citizenship and a plan B to relocate to another country with Expat Money, leave your details for a follow up: https://expatmoney.com/efrat
Follow me:
Twitter | YouTube | Instagram | My podcast | All other links
— Support my work —
The best way to support me is “buy me a coffee” for a 1-time support, or with Bitcoin here.
Thank you!
