KOL401 | Sazmining Twitter Space: Bitcoin & Property Rights

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast, Episode 401.

I appeared on a Twitter Spaces discussion Jan. 12, 2023 for Sazmining, for the topic "Bitcoin & Property Rights," with Kent Halliburton and Logan Chipkin. A variety of questions were fielded. A synopsis and transcript are here, and re-pixeled below.

Synopsis:

Lawyer and libertarian theorist Stephan Kinsella joins Logan Chipkin and Kent Halliburton to discuss Bitcoin from a property rights perspective. If Bitcoin is not physical, how can anyone own it, if at all?

Transcript:

Kent Halliburton (00:06:31):

Sure. Uh, thank you Logan, for the opportunity. You're gonna have to do a little intro for yourself as well. You do an excellent job hosting these spaces, but I operate as the president and COO here at SAS Mining, which means I, uh, manage all the internal affairs. Uh, my first career was in solar, rooftop solar. And, uh, very excited for this conversation to learn from you, Stefan. Um, definitely libertarianism has, uh, has gotten to be in my crosshairs, uh, the further I've gone down my, uh, myBitcoin journey here. But, um, yeah, been, I think you are the first, uh, first Austria, Austria, libertarian, uh, that I've spoken to, and, uh, came to learn a lot from you.

Stephan Kinsella (00:07:16):

Well, glad to, uh, meet you and, uh,prepare to have your mind blown

Logan Chipkin (00:07:21):

. Uh, yes. So I'll, afew words about me. So I've been a, I'm a longtime writer, been writing aboutall sorts of stuff, journalism, physics, economics for years. And now I'm happyto be working with SaaS mining to really create a lot of our content aroundbitcoin, bitcoin mining and energy. Um, so that's a little bit about me. Uh,Stefan, before we start, do you wanna, uh, tell us a little bit about yourselfand your background?

Stephan Kinsella (00:07:46):

Well, I live in Houston, Texas. I amfrom Louisiana originally. I'm a, I'm an attorney, a retired attorney. I'm apatent attorney, uh, but also have long time been a libertarian speaker, writerand thinker. Uh, uh, mostly influenced by the Austrian economics and anarchist,uh, you know, camp of Rothbard and Mees and these guys. So that's my take. I'ma, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a huge Bitcoin, um, uh, hopeful advocate. I don't knowwhat you want to call it, . So, yeah, that's, that's my take. PlusI was an electrical engineer in, in, in college, so, uh, yeah, I'm, I'minterested in technology and, uh, those related matters too.

Logan Chipkin (00:08:31):

Perfect. Yeah, I'm just to let theaudience know, fyi, I'm also essentially an a austral libertarian. I tend tonot use that word, uh, in other context cuz people probably don't often knowwhat that is. But since Steph's here, I figured out why not break open thechampagne bottles. Um, so it's nice to be amongst my people as it were. Notthat bitcoiners aren't, but anyway. So before we get into, so today we're gonnatalk about Bitcoin and kind, kind of how Bitcoin relates to property rights,uh, and we'll see why that's relevant soon. But Stefan, before we get intothat, what is Ostro libertarianism and what is the Ost austral libertarian viewof property rights?

Stephan Kinsella (00:09:07):

Yeah, that's interesting. So, and,and I'm, I'm assuming we have sort of a generic audience who probably doesn'tknow all this stuff. So, um, yeah, so basically, um, economics is just a studyof wealth, how wealth is created in society, right? And so there is a freemarket economics and socialist economics and things like that. And there's asub school called Austrian Economics, which is a special type of approach toeconomics, pioneered by Carl Manger and Lu Luon Meas and Friedrich Hayek and MurrayRothbard and these guys. And, um, from, probably, from most of your audience'spoint of view, the,