StephanKinsella.com

I was talking with some friends lately about this Slate article “Burning Love“, subtitled “When I found out my wife was cheating, a certain backyard plant helped me take revenge.” I was mocking how limp-wristed satchel-wearing lefties take revenge; plus it seemed to me like a crime. But I also criticized this couple for being married students. As I wrote my friends, “I mean why are they married while students, pretending to be adults in the first place?” [continue reading…]

I’ve always been against defamation law (libel, slander, etc.). I assumed it was the plumbline libertarian position, even though many libertarians and most Objectivists seem to favor reputation rights. As I wrote in “Defamation as a Type of Intellectual Property”: ¹ [continue reading…]

1. “Defamation as a Type of Intellectual Property,” in A Life in Liberty: Liber Amicorum in Honor of Hans-Hermann Hoppe, edited by Jörg Guido Hülsmann & Stephan Kinsella (Houston, Texas: Papinian Press, 2024). [↩]

• Austrians Who Say Bitcoin is Impossible Because of the Regression Theorem

Schiff’s Future Bitcoin Tweets (courtesy Grok):

Bitcoin Hits $150,000 – December 15, 2026“@PeterSchiff: Bitcoin at $150k? Just another speculative spike. This Ponzi is running on fumes—treasury companies and speculators are the only buyers. Gold’s still the real store of value,…

— Stephan Kinsella (@NSKinsella) July 14, 2025

(I like Peter; this is just in fun! See our podcast episode, where he’s wrong on IP and Bitcoin. KOL316 | Discussion with Peter Schiff about Patent, Copyright, and Bitcoin.)

My Grok prompt: [continue reading…]

Hoppe’s Social Theory: An Executive Summary (Grok and ChatGPT):

I asked Grok4 (SuperGrok) and ChatGPT to provide executive summaries of Hoppe’s thought. Results below; I have not reviewed these.

My prompt:

Take these documents by Hans-Hermann Hoppe and provide an organized executive summary of Hoppe’s social thought: his economics and economic theory, his views on rights and libertarianism, democracy, immigration, and other issues. Organize it systematically, and include detailed links, references, footnotes/endnotes, and so on. Entitle this Hoppe’s Social Theory: An Executive Summary. Make this as detailed and comprehensive as possible and as long as necessary.

Read more>>

• See also Kinsella’s Libertarian Theory: An Executive Summary (AI summary)

I spent about 30 years writing the material that became Stephan Kinsella, Legal Foundations of a Free Society (Houston, Texas: Papinian Press, 2023). I had plans to write this book for over 15 years but kept dithering, stopping and starting, and also waiting to write a few key chapters. Even so, I could have finished it at least 7 years ago. [continue reading…]

As noted in Libertarianism: A Treatise: AI Assisted Draft:

I spent about 30 years writing the material that became Stephan Kinsella, Legal Foundations of a Free Society (Houston, Texas: Papinian Press, 2023). I had plans to write this book for over 15 years but kept dithering, stopping and starting, and also waiting to write a few key chapters. Even so, I could have finished it at least 7 years ago. [continue reading…]

[From my Webnote series]

From a tweet:

Not really. First, in practice most don’t. Even honest Randians eventually admit this — e.g. David Kelley, annoying pest Jan “Helfeld,” Rand’s attorney Murray Franck, Marsha Enright (I think), and many others. https://t.co/wKbx8ijabC

Second, to have a criminal state you don’t…

— Stephan Kinsella (@NSKinsella) July 12, 2025

Another reason why “voluntary” and tax-free minarchism is a chimera.

[continue reading…]

In this podcast episode with Richard Epstein and John Yoo, Insurrections, The Militia Cause, and Getting Dunked on By Charles Barkley, they discuss, inter alia, the recent case Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos and the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. ¹

See discussion at 38:40, in particular this comment by Epstein:

[44:20] … and it’s 9-0 in both cases, and I have yet to find anybody who thinks that these are sort of imprudent decisions, no matter what they think about guns.

Well, I, for one, disagree with the ruling and the law, as the Federal Government has no authority to regulate state tort law. But then I seem to be the only non-centralist libertarian who opposes such unconstitutional laws. [continue reading…]

1.  Justices reject Mexico’s suit against gun manufacturers; Unanimous Supreme Court rules against Mexico in guns case. [↩]

The essence of the libertarian notion of aggression and self-ownership — see  On the Core Principles of Libertarian Property Rights. See, on this, the Roman law doctrine of “Corpore Corpori,” or “To the body”. AI summary:

In the context of Roman law, “corpore corpore” is a Latin phrase meaning “by the body to the body.” It refers to the requirement in the first chapter of the Lex Aquilia, a law dealing with damage to property, that the damage had to be inflicted by direct physical force. Specifically, the damage had to be caused by the wrongdoer’s body acting directly on the body of the injured thing.

[continue reading…]

Update: See various discussions on Twitter, e.g. [continue reading…]

Related:

• On Coinbase, Bitcoin, Fractional-Reserve Banking, and Irregular Deposits
• Informal session: Roman Skaskiw (USA/Ukraine), An Introduction to Bitcoin

I always saw the promise in BTC, from the beginning. Even spoke at one of the first conference, in 2013. ¹ But I wrongly assumed that the state would realize this and if when it became a threat, it would ban it. ² So I didn’t buy because I was too confident in the state’s competence. As I tweeted here, “A friend: “It seems counterintuitive to me that the fed and other regulators seem mostly indifferent to the existential threat that bitcoin represents to the world reserve currency status of USD.” Me: for one, they are stupid, for another, they don’t care about the future–short term thinking. It’s why I was wrong in 2013 or so and wrongly assumed the FedGov was smart and evil and competent and would ban BTC as soon as it became a threat (https://stephankinsella.com/2025/07/austrians-bitcoin-impossible/). They are just evil and stupid. They have short time preference because they dont “own” the state so they don’t care that BTC is a threat in 10 years. (See Hoppe’s Democracy.)” But I never bought into the flawed “it’s impossible because regression theorem” argument.

Most austro-libertarians are for sound money and for this reason are also pro-bitcoin (BTC), or at least are ambivalent and admit they do not fully understand it—such as Hoppe, who has features pro-bitcoin speakers at the PFS several times:

• PFP215 | Stephan Kinsella, Nobody Owns Bitcoin (PFS 2019)

Some others, especially initially, argued that it was “impossible” because bitcoin “violates the regression theorem” or something. Work in progress—

Not yet sorted/classified

• Laura Davidson and Walter E. Block, “Bitcoin, the Regression Theorem, and the Emergence of a New Medium of Exchange,” Q. J. Austrian Econ. 18, no. 3 (2015): 311–38
• Walter Block, Regression Theorem and Bitcoin, Mises Wire (12/29/2013)

Bitcoin Does Not Violate Regression Theorem

For arguments that Bitcoin can be money and does not violate the regression theorem:

• Robert P. Murphy, Bitcoin and the Theory of Money, Mises Wire (04/29/2020)
• Konrad Graf, Bitcoins, the regression theorem, and that curious but unthreatening empirical world February 27, 2013
• “Bitcoin does NOT violate Mises’ Regression Theorem” (27 July 2010)
• Bitcoin and the Regression Theorem of Money Economics 12/07/2012 By Aristippus
• Peter Šurda, “I, Broken Economist”: An Analysis of Gary North’s economics of Bitcoin, 7 December 2013

Bitcoin Violates Regression Theorem/Cannot Be Money

I’ve lost track of all those who made the argument that it is impossible for various reasons, but here are a few who have expressed skepticism:

• Robert Wenzel, Murray Rothbard: Bitcoin is a Crank Scheme December 20, 2013
• Gary North: Bitcoins: The Road to Investment Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions. December 03, 2013; Showdown: Bitcoins vs. Greenbacks and/or Precious Metals, December 10, 2013; “I, Broken Pencil”: An Economic Analysis of Bitcoins, December 06, 2013
• Huerta de Soto: Jesús Huerta de Soto dice: “BITCOIN no es DINERO”; tweet; From the LeRoux article (below): “As Jesús Huerta de Soto in a personal email writes, «The possibilities the bitcoin becomes money are null and Mises’ regression theorem explains why: money is an evolutionary, organically formed institution that cannot be created ex novo.» “
• Chris LeRoux, “Why bitcoin can never be money,” Procesos de Mercado: Revista Europea de Economía Política Vol. XI, n.º 1 (pdf), Primavera 2014, pp. 249 a 271 (docs). As I wrote on Facebook back in 2017:
  • “Someone sent me a draft paper in April 2014, “Why Bitcoin Can Never Be Money” — by one “Chris LeRoux”, who is the pro-IP guy who used to call himself Sid Non-vicious LeRoux. I only skimmed the paper, but it purports to be an “Austrian” “proof” of why it’s simply impossible for bitcoin to be money! It’s just impossible! Apparently it was published later … Love this quote: “Bitcoin is counterfeiting, inflation, theft conducted by fraud, misrepresentation through complication, just like the fiat federal reserve system,” … (The Bitcoin price on the day I received the manuscript, 4/3/2014, was about $400; lately it’s been between $3500 and $4500…”
• Steve Forbes, Bitcoin: Whatever It Is, It’s Not Money! April 16, 2013
• Frank Shostak, “What Is the Optimal Growth Rate for the Money Supply?“, Mises Wire (June 2, 2025); The Bitcoin money myth 15 April 13
• Michael S. Milano, “Privacy and Fungibility: The Forgotten Virtues of Sound Money,” Mises Wire (07/05/2025).
• Peter Schiff: see Peter Schiff’s Future Bitcoin Tweets
• Kevin Dowd, Bitcoin Will Bite the Dust featuring Kevin Dowd (youtube, Cato) (Nov. 17, 2014); Dowd, Kevin, & Hutchinson, M., Bitcoin Will Bite the Dust. The Cato journal, 35(2) (2015): 357-382; Kevin Dowd, Bitcoin Will Still Bite the Dust (Updated Sep 14, 2021; Published Jan 13, 2019)
• Sam Bostaph seems skeptical in this 2017 interchange

1.  KOL085 | The History, Meaning, and Future of Legal Tender (Crypto-Currency Conference, Atlanta, 2013). [↩]
2. Bitcoin Confiscation vs. Gold Confiscation; also Musings on Fractional-Reserve Banking in a Bitcoin Age; Physicalist Shock Absorber Metaphors; Am I a Bitcoin Maximalist?; Cocky ruminations about why Bitcoin is not “ownable” “property”.  [↩]