Achieving Liberty Through Crypto-Agorism

By the year 1788, there were eleven states in the Union, and 3.7 million citizens in the United States. Prior to that, most of those states had been settled for over 100 years, with Virginia having been settled in 1607. By 1861, the population had grown to 32 million citizens and approximately 34 states, and we already found ourselves amidst the American Civil War. In 2018, there are 50 states, several territories and nearly 327 million citizens. While these numbers might suggest that the path to freedom will be an arduous journey, there are many ways to help the cause, such as crypto-agorism.

Blemishes on American history such as slavery aside, the fact remains that at 10% of today's population and fewer states, our problems were so great that the way we settled our differences was through four years of violence. It is truly astonishing that the United States has remained intact for over 150 years since the Civil War. The country is deeply divided and every 4 to 8 years, half of the country is driven by anger and sadness, while the other half of the country enjoys their reign over the losers, thanks to the flawed concepts of a representative republic and democracy. Perhaps this timeframe of 4-8 years is just short of the tipping point that leads to civil war. By the time the losing half of the country is ready to take up arms against their perceived oppressors, it's election time again, and the roles are reversed. But one thing has been consistent throughout the history of the United States. Regardless of who wins an election, whether it's a Democrat or a Republican, government keeps growing. Entitlements increase. Military spending increases. More laws are written. More regulations are written. More lobbyists convince politicians to subsidize their industries. Taxes go up. Debt goes up. And freedom shrinks.

Election Map, 2016. Source: Metrocosm

We have been stripped of our natural rights. We have had the fruits of our labor stolen, for purposes that we did not agree to. On paper, some of us own property and yet we pay rent to the state every year. Meanwhile, we pay into failing systems, put in place by corrupt politicians to the benefit of their cronies. We are arrested, fined and imprisoned for victimless crimes, and we are witnessing police brutality that serves no purpose other than to keep the population under the control of the state.

It's time to take back your freedom. It's time to fight for liberty. It's time to reverse the government's use of force over freedom-loving, peaceful people. It's time to take back America, and there are many ways to participate. I'll discuss crypto-agorism, but first it's important to identify other methods of getting closer to our goal, and some of their associated risks.

Depending on your risk tolerance, you have a number of options. At the political level, you can support liberty-minded candidates in the Libertarian Party, or even in the Liberty Caucus. If you're a purist, neither of these options will get you what you want. However they may lead either a pause in the growth of government, or incrementally more freedom, lower taxes and less foreign intervention. Most likely, support for liberty movements will raise awareness, which in turn will help to recruit people to the cause. This is the easiest, safest method of freedom fighting that can be done. The risks are low and there are several benefits. Even if you are a hardcore ancap who rejects government, it costs you nothing to press a few buttons every couple of years, and doing so will grant you an audience with those who might not otherwise hear your message.

At a more extreme level, you could theoretically withdraw entirely from the economy. You could work for cash, live in a trailer and probably live at just above the poverty level while you exercise your natural rights. You might be able to get away with it if you're operating at a very small scale, and you're not engaging in what the state perceives to be major criminal activity. But you might be putting yourself at risk if you're doing anything to put yourself on the radar.

At the most extreme level, you could be prepping for a violent revolution. This is probably not a course of action that will lead to a good outcome for most people. In recent history, the Occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge lasted about 40 days and consisted of a few dozen ranchers and their friends. While I support the Bundies in their right to protest the Bureau of Land Management and other agencies in their questionable and sometimes abusive policies, it was foolish to think that an occupation of a nature preserve by a few dozen guys on horseback would have a positive outcome. Arrests were made, people were prosecuted, fines were levied and one person died. While their statement was bold, the press did not paint them as heroes, but rather as a bunch of right-wing extremists on the lunatic fringe. Whether that was true or not is completely irrelevant. Perception is everything, and in my view, while the occupation may have energized people who already supported them, it did nothing to recruit people to the cause of liberty. Is there a better path forward? I think so.

Agorism is a form of libertarian civil disobedience in which people interact voluntarily through a means of counter-economics. It was first practiced and defined by Samuel Edward Konkin III in 1975 as a way to minimize what a person contributes to the state in the form of taxes, license fees and other methods that the state uses to take the fruits of your labor, without your permission, at the point of a gun.

You will need to research your local laws to understand any potential risks with agorism, but the main takeaway is that it may be blended with "normal" living. You can have a regular job, and get paid a regular paycheck, in regular fiat currency, and you can pay taxes on those earnings. You can simultaneously find or organize a syndicate of like-minded people with whom you may trade, conduct business or otherwise interact with in a way that is completely separate. As your community grows, you will have more power to organize and recruit others to the cause.

With the advent of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, a new form of agorism, sometimes referred to as crypto-agorism, or crypto-anarchy is now possible. You now have the ability to trade using non-fiat assets that can retain their value over time. Rather than trying to figure out how many cucumbers are equivalent to a freshly knit sweater, you can just price the item in digital currency and conduct business in a way that is very similar to traditional means.

While Bitcoin is the most popular digital coin, due to its being first-to-market, there are better options. First, Bitcoin is not completely anonymous. The blockchain stores meta information about each transaction that can be used to identify your wallet, you and the people you have transacted with. Second, Bitcoin transactions are more expensive than most other digital currencies, though this is becoming less of a problem with the implementation of the Lightning Network, which creates a sort of digital checking account system to reduce costs.

To fulfill your goals as an agorist who engages in some degree of anarcho capitalism, I would suggest taking a look at privacy coins like Monero. You will have an added layer of privacy to protect your identity, and you will pay lower fees on your transactions. Do keep in mind however, that you need to do your own research on any legal risks associated with such transactions. Many countries have certain AML (Anti Money Laundering) laws and systems in place, as well as tax laws that may apply to digital assets, whether they're classified as property or securities. If your activities are not 100% compliant with the law, then you are putting yourself at risk to some degree, and you need to be aware of the possible consequences, which could include fines and/or incarceration. The reality is that if you're selling a few cucumbers each week for a bit of crypto, you're probably not worth anyone's time to investigate. However, if you're operating at scale, or if you are targeted for some reason, then you may face a great deal of risk. To cite a well-known example, Ross William Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, had his business shut down by the FBI in 2013, and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. His "crime" was to create a platform that facilitated trade between individuals without policing them on the legality of their activities. This was the digital equivalent of a real estate developer being prosecuted for putting up a building in which people engage in activities that are banned by the state.

The risks associated with crypto-agorism will also depend on how trustworthy your network is. If you've got five, or twenty, or a hundred people in your syndicate, then you had better make sure that they have all been vetted as trustworthy people who get along with one another. All it takes is one person with a grudge to cause problems for the group, and nobody needs that.

Also, keep in mind that there are different kinds of agorists. I would support an agorist group that believes in free markets, and the interactions would likely be the most rewarding, as prices are determined by what the market will bear. However, there are also communists who consider themselves to be agorists. That's their choice, and in a truly libertarian society, they would have a right to exist, so long as their community is voluntary and doesn't force others to comply with their controls over labor and private property rights. But the point is that their philosophy may not be compatible with that of someone who does believe in private property, and the freedom for an employer and a worker to exchange labor for wages at an agreed upon price.

In my view, agorism is not tremendously scalable without taking on a lot of risk. However on a small scale, it can be a productive way to engage in civil disobedience while making friends with like-minded individuals, and sorting out more significant ideas that can produce good outcomes. I'll get into those at a later date.