Bitcoin Audible

"It's a dangerous business to help people out of slavery. But so what? We have to do this. This is a moral obligation, an ethical obligation, as a technical possibility, and a lot of fun.

So the risks of it are real and substantial and have been forever, especially in the last 30, 40 years or so. Countless builders have gotten into serious trouble or even been kidnapped or killed. And that's a hard fact of reality that we have to deal with.

But I'm way more scared of the alternative of not working on this code and seeing us lose the grip on freedom that we have, rather than increasing it and making it flourish. So for me, it's really a no-brainer. They're so angry about this technology precisely because it works real damn good, and that's what we have to double down."

~ Max Hillebrand

I sat down with Max Hillebrand for a conversation that ended up being far more optimistic than I expected. In this Chat, we dive deep into the mechanics of digital privacy, breaking down exactly how CoinJoin achieves trustless coordination and why the "code liberation" movement is just getting started. What happens when everyone becomes a programmer through AI agents and vibe coding? We then explore this explosion of productivity and how it feeds into new protocols like Marmot and the White Noise application.

Finally, we discuss the philosophy of the "Second Realm" and why the tools to exit the system are already here, ready for us to build a quiet, global resistance against surveillance. It is time to stop hurting yourself with broken systems and start building the new ones.

Check out our awesome sponsors!

HRF: The Human Rights Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies. Subscribe to HRF's Financial Freedom Newsletter today. (Link: https://mailchi.mp/hrf.org/financial-freedom-newsletter)

OFF: The Oslo Freedom Forum is a global human rights event by the Human Rights Foundation (HRF), uniting voices from activism, journalism, tech, and beyond. Through powerful stories and collaboration, OFF advances freedom and human potential worldwide. Join us next June. (Link: https://oslofreedomforum.com/)

Guest Links

Max on Nostr (Link: https://tinyurl.com/2ujwmsf5)

Max's Website (Link: https://towardsliberty.com/)

Max's article The Code Liberation (Link: https://tinyurl.com/yc2ybnk7)

Anarplex.net (Link: https://anarplex.sirion.io/)

Marmot protocol's Repository (Link: https://github.com/marmot-protocol)

The Second Realm by Smuggler XYZ (Link: https://tinyurl.com/46z4cd93)

Sedition, Subversion, and Sabotage by Ben Stone (Link: https://tinyurl.com/yee65zuy)

True Names: And the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier by Vernor Vinge (Link: https://tinyurl.com/5atu4xcx)

Host Links

⁠Guy on Nostr ⁠(Link: http://tinyurl.com/2xc96ney)

⁠Guy on X ⁠(Link: https://twitter.com/theguyswann)

"PearDrive is like, how could you make stuff seamless across devices and how can you leverage that device that has a lot of storage to get the most out of the device that has a little storage?

How do you make it so that when I boot something up, it just syncs to my Linux? And if I delete anything from my phone or my MacBook, I still see the thumbnail and I still connect to my Linux to bring it up and I can even play it directly off of my Linux machine. And if I want it locally to edit with or to share with somebody, I just hit download.

How could you actually make it visually aware of where the data is and make it feel like the data just exists everywhere it wants? That's what we're trying to do."

What if we could rebuild the digital world without the servers, the clouds, or the middlemen that control our data today?

I joined the crew at Ungovernable Misfits - Q&A, Max, and Seth - on Freedom Tech Friday 25 to explore the revolutionary potential of the Holepunch and Pear ecosystem. We break down the magic behind connecting peer-to-peer through firewalls and why the birthday problem changes everything for network resilience. We also dive into the philosophy behind Keet, the current state of Pear Drive, and why file sharing is the foundational layer of a truly decentralized web.

It is time to discover how we can finally reclaim control over our digital lives without sacrificing the user experience.

Check out our awesome sponsors!

HRF: The Human Rights Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies. Subscribe to HRF's Financial Freedom Newsletter today. (Link: https://mailchi.mp/hrf.org/financial-freedom-newsletter)

OFF: The Oslo Freedom Forum is a global human rights event by the Human Rights Foundation (HRF), uniting voices from activism, journalism, tech, and beyond. Through powerful stories and collaboration, OFF advances freedom and human potential worldwide. Join us next June. (Link: https://oslofreedomforum.com/)

Guest Links

UGMF on X (Link: https://twitter.com/ungovernablemf)

UGMF on YT (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@ungovernablemisfits)

UGMF's Website (Link: https://www.ungovernablemisfits.com/)

Host Links

⁠Guy on Nostr ⁠(Link: http://tinyurl.com/2xc96ney)

⁠Guy on X ⁠(Link: https://twitter.com/theguyswann)

Guy on Instagram (Link: https://www.instagram.com/theguyswann)

Guy on TikTok (Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@theguyswann)

Guy on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@theguyswann)

⁠Bitcoin Audible on X⁠ (Link: https://twitter.com/BitcoinAudible)

The Guy Swann Network Broadcast Room on Keet (Link: https://tinyurl.com/3na6v839)

"Imagine the Stanford marshmallow experiment in reverse. Instead of getting a second marshmallow for waiting, the children are told that every fifteen minutes they wait, the marshmallow in front of them will shrink one tiny bite at a time, until nothing remains. Naturally, they eat their marshmallow immediately, not out of impatience or hunger, but common sense. That's exactly how our money works today."

~ Connor Dolan

What if the real cost of our broken money isn't just inflation – but the slow erosion of your ability to even imagine a future worth building toward?

This episode explores the surprising connection between Bitcoin, Stoicism, and the question we're all really asking: how should I be spending my time? From the marshmallow experiment in reverse to debt as invisible strings, we dig into why sound money might be the ultimate productivity hack – and why fiat is designed to keep you dependent, distracted, and disconnected from the life you actually want.

Check out the original article: Bitcoin, Stoicism, and Our Relationship With Time (Link: https://x.com/conhodlan/status/2011485978037203351)

References from the episode

The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous – the book that opened Connor's eyes (and mine) to what money actually is (Link: https://saifedean.com/tbs)

The Daily Stoic podcast by Ryan Holiday – short, digestible episodes on Stoic philosophy (Link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-daily-stoic/id1430315931)

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius – the classic starting point if you want to dive into Stoicism (Link: https://classics.mit.edu/Antoninus/meditations.html)

Alex Gladstein's piece Structural Adjustment – a deep look at how the IMF and World Bank use debt as a tool of control (Link: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/culture/imf-world-bank-repress-poor-countries)

Host Links

⁠Guy on Nostr ⁠(Link: http://tinyurl.com/2xc96ney)

⁠Guy on X ⁠(Link: https://twitter.com/theguyswann)

Guy on Instagram (Link: https://www.instagram.com/theguyswann)

Guy on TikTok (Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@theguyswann)

Guy on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@theguyswann)

⁠Bitcoin Audible on X⁠ (Link: https://twitter.com/BitcoinAudible)

The Guy Swann Network Broadcast Room on Keet (Link: https://tinyurl.com/3na6v839)

Check out our awesome sponsors!

HRF: The Human Rights Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit...

"Of course, central banking, fiat money is bad, but nevertheless, maybe AI and robotics and this productivity is going to be really beneficial to the global economy, not just the U.S. economy.

We're going to start to see the liquidity, the whole U.S. PMI go up, and that's going to cause Bitcoin NGU. That's kind of how I'm seeing this next year or two.

I think we're going to see a lot of AI, productivity and extra liquidity coming in. So I am very bullish on this coming year."

~ Stephan Livera

The Bitcoin landscape has changed dramatically over the last few years, leading many to ask: is the cypherpunk ethos fading away?

I sit down with the legendary podcaster Stephan Livera to explore the tension between ideological purity and the pragmatic reality of global adoption. We dive deep into the "Power Law" of Bitcoin's growth, why our timeframes might be all wrong, and the controversial role of stablecoins as a stepping stone. From the mechanics of Spark and Ark to the arbitrage strategies of treasury companies, we cover how the ecosystem is evolving to meet the world where it is. Are we losing our way, or simply maturing into the financial system of the future?

Check out our awesome sponsors!

HRF: The Human Rights Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies. Subscribe to HRF's Financial Freedom Newsletter today. (Link: https://mailchi.mp/hrf.org/financial-freedom-newsletter)

OFF: The Oslo Freedom Forum is a global human rights event by the Human Rights Foundation (HRF), uniting voices from activism, journalism, tech, and beyond. Through powerful stories and collaboration, OFF advances freedom and human potential worldwide. Join us next June. (Link: https://oslofreedomforum.com/)

Guest Links

Stephan on X (Link: https://twitter.com/stephanlivera)

Stephan's Podcast (Link: https://www.youtube.com/c/StephanLivera)

Stephan's Website (Link: https://stephanlivera.com/)

Host Links

⁠Guy on Nostr ⁠(Link: http://tinyurl.com/2xc96ney)

⁠Guy on X ⁠(Link: https://twitter.com/theguyswann)

Guy on Instagram (Link: https://www.instagram.com/theguyswann)

Guy on TikTok (Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@theguyswann)

Guy on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@theguyswann)

⁠Bitcoin Audible on X⁠ (Link: https://twitter.com/BitcoinAudible)

The Guy Swann Network Broadcast Room on Keet (Link: https://tinyurl.com/3na6v839)

"The end of mankind wouldn't even be biological in such an instance. It would be neurological."

~ Copernican

What if AI's biggest flaw - training on its own recycled data - isn't just a tech glitch, but a universal law unraveling societies, economies, and even mouse utopias?

Dive into this mind-bending theory that ties neural networks to human decadence, explores why socialism collapses like a bad map, and questions if superintelligence is doomed to diminishing returns - could this be the hidden force behind our cultural breakdown?

Check out the original article: Urban Bugmen and AI Model Collapse: A Unified Theory (Link: https://alwaysthehorizon.substack.com/p/urban-bugmen-and-ai-model-collapse)

References from the episode

Previous AI Unchained episodes, especially The Scam of OpenAI (Link: https://fountain.fm/episode/rD2MQlPCU8TDclQcHJmb) and Google "We Have No Moat..." (Link: https://fountain.fm/episode/7eFcXC9SsIRee9ZEHE3N)

The piece we covered on superintelligence theories - Situational Awareness (Link: https://fountain.fm/episode/pJxqSUeb99092QKn9A9H)

Host Links

⁠Guy on Nostr ⁠(Link: http://tinyurl.com/2xc96ney)

⁠Guy on X ⁠(Link: https://twitter.com/theguyswann)

Guy on Instagram (Link: https://www.instagram.com/theguyswann)

Guy on TikTok (Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@theguyswann)

Guy on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@theguyswann)

⁠Bitcoin Audible on X⁠ (Link: https://twitter.com/BitcoinAudible)

The Guy Swann Network Broadcast Room on Keet (Link: https://tinyurl.com/3na6v839)

Check out our awesome sponsors!

HRF: The Human Rights Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies. Subscribe to HRF's Financial Freedom Newsletter today. (Link: https://mailchi.mp/hrf.org/financial-freedom-newsletter)

OFF: The Oslo Freedom Forum is a global human rights event by the Human Rights Foundation (HRF), uniting voices from activism, journalism, tech, and beyond. Through powerful stories and collaboration, OFF advances freedom and human potential worldwide. Join us next June. (Link: https://oslofreedomforum.com/)