Temporary Autonomous Zones: The Economics of Exit
When defense costs less than attack and property emerges through daily practice, autonomous zones become economically sustainable refuges.
Max
max@towardsliberty.com
Praxeologist ~ Cryptoanarchist ~ Cypherpunk
The Great Decentralization Swindle: How Every Protocol But One Betrays Its Promise
The decentralized social landscape is littered with protocols that centralize through the back door. Nostr alone eliminates trusted third parties entirely, making it the only protocol where your identity truly belongs to you.
Private Relay Connections: Zero-Knowledge Solutions for Nostr
Nostr relays see everything - who connects, what they fetch, how often they post. Zero-knowledge cryptography can fix all three problems: Semaphore-based authentication hides which whitelisted user is connecting, private information retrieval hides which notes you're fetching, and Privacy Pass enables rate limiting without identity linkage.
The Hard Part of Multi-Device Messaging
MIP-06 proposes the protocol basis for White Noise multi-device group membership, letting each device securely join as its own MLS leaf.
Sifting Through the Archive: Private Set Membership for Blossom
Binary Fuse filters let Blossom clients privately check which files exist on a server - download a compact filter once, query locally with zero server load, and use delta lists for real-time accuracy.
The Instrument Returns: An Introduction to Bitcredit
Bitcredit is the concrete protocol reconstructing bills of exchange on Bitcoin, closing the credit layer gap that prior posts have diagnosed.
Sign What You Cannot See: A Field Guide to Blind Signatures
Four decades of blind signatures show that one algebraic trick, letting someone sign what they cannot see, protects ecash and CoinJoin.
The Last Leak: How MIP-05 Closes the Push Notification Surveillance Hole
Push notifications let governments track your messaging habits. MIP-05 encrypts device tokens with ephemeral keys, ensuring notification servers learn absolutely nothing.
Another round of patience
Time preference reveals through lending at interest rates. Hoarding refuses all rates, demanding present possession. Expected gains are speculation, not deferral.
The Cypher Wars: Choose Your Weapon Wisely
Use ChaCha20-Poly1305 everywhere without hardware AES. Use AES-256-GCM with AES-NI. Never reuse nonces. Prefer AEAD always.
The Right to Walk Away: Angor and the Future of Bitcoin Crowdfunding
Angor gives investors what ICOs and crowdfunding never could: the cryptographic ability to recover their funds if projects fail to deliver.
What Your Loved One Is Actually Trying to Tell You
They haven't joined a cult. They stumbled onto questions they couldn't stop asking, and they love you too much to keep them to themselves.
The Frequency of Dissent
Mesh networks turn every radio into a relay and every user into infrastructure, creating communication grids with no center to seize.
The Case for Custodial Nostr: Why Teams Should Stop Fighting the Lost War
Organizations already delegate key custody internally. A server-side Nostr client with permission management would be faster, stabler, and more honest than relay-dependent remote signing hacks.
The Mathematics That Bridges Bitcoin: From BitVM to Argo
Cryptographic enforcement succeeds where trust fails, and nowhere does this principle matter more than in Bitcoin's quest for trustless bridges.
Your Phone Is Not Your Property (Until You Install GrapheneOS)
Your smartphone surveils you by design. GrapheneOS transforms a Pixel into private hardware you actually control. Here's why it matters and how to do it.
Protocols for the Ungoverned
Functional legal orders emerge from voluntary adoption and competitive governance, not top-down decree; history proves that polycentric law outperforms territorial monopoly.
Credit Before Coin: How Markets Bootstrap Sound Money Economies
Bills of exchange don't just provide elasticity within existing monetary systems; they can bootstrap entire economies that lack base money.
The Consumption You Call Saving
Holding money does not defer gratification but consumes the opportunity cost of lending, making hoarding a present expense rather than proof of low time preference.
The One Rule That Creates All Wealth
Prosperity has one prerequisite: do not steal. Secure property rights enable voluntary exchange, which accumulates capital fairly. The West is collapsing because governments have become systematic thieves.
