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!

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Table of Contents

Preface

Austrian economists theorize but cannot build. Cypherpunks build but lack theory. This book synthesizes both to make the state irrelevant.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Open source is often romanticized as a space where developers collaborate freely, driven by passion rather than profit. In this story, contributors are usually imagined as well-paid engineers hacking on side projects after work, generously donating their time to the commons. Sometimes that image is true. But increasingly, it is incomplete and dangerously misleading.

A significant amount of open-source software is built and maintained by people who are not financially secure. Unemployed developers, students, contributors from low-income regions, or individuals without a safety net routinely spend months or years maintaining infrastructure that others depend on. Their work powers startups, corporations, and entire ecosystems. The value they create is immense. The compensation they receive is often zero.

This asymmetry exists across the software world, but it becomes especially troubling in Bitcoin.

Bitcoin presents itself as an ethical response to a broken financial system. It promises sovereignty and an escape from extractive intermediaries. And yet, much of Bitcoin’s open infrastructure is built on the same old pattern: unpaid or underpaid labor at the base, capital accumulation at the top. The irony is hard to ignore. Poor contributors are, quite literally, helping rich people become richer.

This is not usually framed as exploitation. Contributors are told they are earning reputation, experience, or optionality. But these currencies only work if you can already afford to wait. You cannot pay rent with GitHub stars. Long-term upside is meaningless if short-term survival is not guaranteed.

Open source claims to be open to everyone. Technically, this is true. Socially and economically, it is not. The system rewards those who can afford to work for free. Time, stable housing, healthcare, and emotional safety are invisible prerequisites. What looks like meritocracy is often just privilege with good branding.

This is not a moral failure of individual contributors. Most are acting rationally. Open source is one of the few domains where barriers to entry are low, credentials are optional, and participation is global. For many, contributing is an act of hope. That hope, however, is routinely captured and monetized by actors with more capital, more stability, and more leverage.

The real failure is structural. Open source has no default mechanisms to sustain the people who maintain it. It relies on altruism to prop up systems that generate enormous economic value. When maintainers burn out, disappear, or collapse under financial pressure, the ecosystem reacts with surprise, despite having depended on their unpaid labor all along.

Bitcoin solved a profound problem in monetary design. It did not solve the problem of funding public goods. It did not eliminate power asymmetries. And it did not magically align incentives for human labor. If anything, it exposed how deeply those problems run.

And the uncomfortable truth will remain: the people building the tools of escape are often the least able to use them.

This is the most beautiful thing I've read today! There is no greater wealth in this world than the pure love and friendship of our children. This truly warmed my heart🤝

The duality of hodling

17 years later

Still running Bitcoin

the internet is fucked.

- govs can turn off the internet for everyone whenever they want, surveil entire populations, and attack people’s privacy

- few corps control the physical infrastructure and can censor websites, domains, block protocols or entire countries

- billionaires and mega corps control social media and manipulate news, politics, brainwash entire populations

- AI already producing infinite slop responsible for the majority of all new content on the internet today

the internet is so fucked.

My 2nd baby girl was born today 🩷

my toddler called me his best friend and my heart melted

Rather than choosing their tribe based on shared principles, most people just reprogram their principles around whatever their tribe is doing.

🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰👍

Hi Bitcoiners - it’s Fran again.

Seventeen years ago, Hal posted two words that changed everything: “Running bitcoin.”

Today, thousands of bitcoiners in 50+ countries run in his name.

The 5th #RunningBitcoinChallenge starts now. ⚡️🏃‍♂️

Join us at runningbitcoin.us

🏃‍♀️ What it is

Starting Jan 10 and for the next 21 days, we honor Hal by running or walking 21 km (13.1 mi) – anywhere, any pace.

Every step helps fund research to end ALS, the disease Hal fought while still running and still coding.

💛 Why Hal

Hal believed code could help set humanity free.

His work set the stage for Bitcoin. He was one of the very first to run Bitcoin, the recipient of the first BTC transaction. And he was an avid runner until progression of his ALS made it impossible.

This challenge is our way of keeping both his cypherpunk spirit and his legacy alive.

⚡️ Who’s backing it

This year’s challenge is supported by:

– HRF – defending human freedom and privacy with Bitcoin

– Block – building on open money for the world

I’m also proud to highlight HRF’s Finney Freedom Prize, honoring work at the intersection of Bitcoin, freedom, and privacy.

Congratulations to the 3rd halving era’s winner, Andreas M. Antonopoulos - who educated millions on Bitcoin and its potential for humanity.

Hal would be proud of your work. 🏆

💰 Where your sats go

– 80%+ of all funds go directly to ALS research

– Donations in bitcoin (and fiat) are accepted

Every sat, every step, every share moves us closer to a cure.

👣 How to join

1. Go to runningbitcoin.us

2. Sign up for the Running Bitcoin Challenge

3. Run, walk, or hike your 21 km over 21 days

4. Post your progress and share a photo and tag #RunningBitcoinChallenge

🙏 From me to you

I’m Fran Finney, Hal’s wife.

Every January, I watch this community show up – running, walking, donating, sharing.

You keep Hal’s spirit alive. That means everything to me.

📡 Find us on Nostr

– Me (Fran):

npub14fkfcx9j0494g8zejfdxsr9t8raxt9n8vzkz6l5w4ef0gjysh4dqcsmkgv

– Running Bitcoin Challenge:

npub17hzf5v2l9aw29h4l9q330rkd4typnwkx80ksy6cnfuhzr33xvsaqucdscd

21 days. 21 km. 1 legend.

Run. Walk. Donate. Share.

Join us in honoring Hal – and if you participate, I’d love to see your pictures.

👉 runningbitcoin.us

Being early is heavy.

I sell paintings for Bitcoin only.

Some people don't understand why.

Some think I'm limiting myself.

But here's what I've realized:

those who have understood the importance of Bitcoin are privileged — and often don't even realize it.

Not because they are smarter or destined to win, but because they noticed a crack in the wall before it became obvious to everyone. They sensed that money is not just currency, but trust; not just law, but power.

This is a quiet privilege: it offers no guarantees, promises no wealth, and spares no effort.

Understanding Bitcoin doesn't mean having arrived. It means having arrived early. And arriving early is uncomfortable: it makes you lonely, exposes you to doubt, forces you to explain things others are not yet willing to hear.

Many of those who "understand" don't feel privileged at all. They feel ahead of time — and being early is heavy.

Bitcoin is not a religion, nor a shortcut. It is a hard tool, demanding study, discipline, and responsibility. It does not forgive superficiality, technical or moral. It saves no one by magic.

The truth, without sugarcoating, is this:

understanding Bitcoin doesn't make you special. It makes you responsible.

Responsible for continuing to study.

Responsible for not mythologizing it.

Responsible for not preaching blindly.

Responsible for accepting that you might be wrong about timing, methods, outcomes.

If there is a real privilege, it lies only here:

Having suspected that the rules of the game were not eternal.

And that suspicion, once born, never lets you return to being at ease as before.

That's why for my paintings I only accept Bitcoin.

Not because I'm certain. But because I can't unsee what I've seen.

#bitcoin #art #nostr

Freedom for IRAN ✌🏽

Why are all clients retarded at uploading videos?

It’s a daycare where the kids write the rules and we get the bill.

Nach WhatsApp und Google eliminiere ich jetzt Windows komplett aus meinem Leben.

Und es fühlt sich so gut an.

Nach WhatsApp und Google eliminiere ich jetzt Windows komplett aus meinem Leben.

Und es fühlt sich so gut an.