🎙️ 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.
FINALLY got a chance to write up a more detailed review on this episode. Trust me, it is AWESOME! Somehow, I was unaware of Max prior to this, but he is an absolutely fascinating and brilliant guy with an amazing background. He has an extensive background in Austrian economics, Praexology (the study of the general laws of human action), and Bitcoin which turned into an incredible interview with tons of great insights and takeaways. This was NOT the typical Bitcoin conversation, it was SO much more than that. The interview covered many thoughts on life as well as how the same principles applied to Bitcoin. Here are some of the key insights that really resonated with me:
- A lot of Austrian economists didn’t fully understand Bitcoin because they knew that money had to be scarce and they didn’t think anything digital could truly be scarce.
- Max thinks that we’ve essentially solved the money problem with Bitcoin
- There are two ways to make Bitcoin transactions anonymous. Coinjoin or Lightning. We have a clear linkage between inputs and outputs, but we don’t have to be “alone” in our transactions. You just need a larger crowd. That is, you either tell your transaction information to a large crowd (Coinjoin), or you reveal less information about your transaction (Lightning).
- The Praexology to violence/attacks is based on a cost/benefit analysis. That is, an unprofitable attacker will soon be bankrupt and will disappear. Therefore, If we increase the cost of attack, while simultaneously decreasing the cost of defense, then we make theft impractical and uneconomical
- Building on this topic of the violence, Efrat noted that the incentive structure to encourage war is the “Build back better” ethos (a formal program of the UN). That is, the plan is based on the assumption that something will be destroyed or ruined (e.g, war, disaster, emergency). This ethos normalizes war and destruction which requires things to be rebuilt (by gov’t contractors of course).
- Wars are only funded by direct taxation or indirect taxation of inflation
- Speech is a huge problem that we haven’t solved. It cannot be a centralized source with it’s own closed algorithm such as X/Twitter. It HAS to be a decentralized protocol like Nostr with private/public key cryptography as an identity layer. Max’s focus is now on implementing new apps on Nostr.
- Max provided an amazing breakdown of the three Axioms of Austrian economics. An axiom is an assumption on which we base our logical conclusions. The three axioms he discusses are:
1. Humans Action Axiom - Humans have it in them to act and creatively solve their own problems.
2. Argumentation Axiom - Humans are able to understand truths, by arguing with each other. And therefore we can deduce ethics (we can derive an “ought” from an “is”). Theft is bad, therefore we ought not steal.
3. Resistance Axiom - Any security technology can only protect you unless you resist the attacker.
I absolutely LOVED this episode. It was full of unique thoughts and insights, based on a ton of deep thought. I cannot recommend it enough! 🔥
FINALLY got a chance to write up a more detailed review on this episode. Trust me, it is AWESOME! Somehow, I was unaware of Max prior to this, but he is an absolutely fascinating and brilliant guy with an amazing background. He has an extensive background in Austrian economics, Praexology (the study of the general laws of human action), and Bitcoin which turned into an incredible interview with tons of great insights and takeaways. This was NOT the typical Bitcoin conversation, it was SO much more than that. The interview covered many thoughts on life as well as how the same principles applied to Bitcoin. Here are some of the key insights that really resonated with me:
- A lot of Austrian economists didn’t fully understand Bitcoin because they knew that money had to be scarce and they didn’t think anything digital could truly be scarce.
- Max thinks that we’ve essentially solved the money problem with Bitcoin
- There are two ways to make Bitcoin transactions anonymous. Coinjoin or Lightning. We have a clear linkage between inputs and outputs, but we don’t have to be “alone” in our transactions. You just need a larger crowd. That is, you either tell your transaction information to a large crowd (Coinjoin), or you reveal less information about your transaction (Lightning).
- The Praexology to violence/attacks is based on a cost/benefit analysis. That is, an unprofitable attacker will soon be bankrupt and will disappear. Therefore, If we increase the cost of attack, while simultaneously decreasing the cost of defense, then we make theft impractical and uneconomical
- Building on this topic of the violence, Efrat noted that the incentive structure to encourage war is the “Build back better” ethos (a formal program of the UN). That is, the plan is based on the assumption that something will be destroyed or ruined (e.g, war, disaster, emergency). This ethos normalizes war and destruction which requires things to be rebuilt (by gov’t contractors of course).
- Wars are only funded by direct taxation or indirect taxation of inflation
- Speech is a huge problem that we haven’t solved. It cannot be a centralized source with it’s own closed algorithm such as X/Twitter. It HAS to be a decentralized protocol like Nostr with private/public key cryptography as an identity layer. Max’s focus is now on implementing new apps on Nostr.
- Max provided an amazing breakdown of the three Axioms of Austrian economics. An axiom is an assumption on which we base our logical conclusions. The three axioms he discusses are:
1. Humans Action Axiom - Humans have it in them to act and creatively solve their own problems.
2. Argumentation Axiom - Humans are able to understand truths, by arguing with each other. And therefore we can deduce ethics (we can derive an “ought” from an “is”). Theft is bad, therefore we ought not steal.
3. Resistance Axiom - Any security technology can only protect you unless you resist the attacker.
I absolutely LOVED this episode. It was full of unique thoughts and insights, based on a ton of deep thought. I cannot recommend it enough! 🔥
amazing review Larry ,thank you!!