Agorist Tactics
Strategies for Economic Freedom
Beyond understanding why agorism works, this page provides the actionable strategies and practical tools to build a thriving parallel economy. Here, you will discover concrete methods for engaging in counter-economic activities, diversifying your trade, and directly contributing to the economic freedom that defunds coercive systems.
These aren't just theories—they're tested tactics used by Network members to earn, spend, and save outside state control. Master these strategies and you become economically sovereign, no longer dependent on systems designed to extract your wealth.
Interaction Receipts: Building Trust Through Documentation
Receipts are proof of interactions that have taken place. In counter-economic networks where traditional credentials don't matter, receipts become your reputation—documented evidence of value you've provided and agreements you've honored.
A receipt could be created by any interaction between two people, but the quality of the receipt is determined by its vision and scope. Those involved in the interaction sign off on a description of what took place and can add more context in the future upon the agreement of both parties.
How Interaction Receipts Work:
- Document completed work: Every job, trade, or service gets a receipt describing what was delivered
- Both parties sign: Agreement from both sides validates the interaction
- Expandable records: Can be updated with additional context as relationships develop
- Build reputation over time: Multiple receipts demonstrate consistent reliability
- Replace credentials: Instead of degrees or licenses, show what you've actually done
Work that is completed can use an hourly or interaction receipt. It fulfills certain requirements in the moment, but can also be expanded upon in the future. For example, by being present again and again, and gaining a receipt for each instance, you build trust in others that you will be present more in the future.
Receipts do not go away. The achievements they detail usually only get expanded upon, unless there is a dispute. If you're working towards a career, you can build receipts that will count simultaneously towards many things in the future—proof of competence that matters more than any diploma.
Creating Free Spaces: Crowdfunding and Charity
People value knowing there is a safety net for the poor. Both for people they care about, people who might otherwise hurt them, or for their own sake if they do see a potential for misfortune. The problem is, we all know how easy it would be to solve the issue of homelessness but doing that is often expensive or illegal.
We need connections and strength to get more connections and strength. Supply and demand will not provide the market quickly enough until we provide more goods at a cheaper rate. We also understand that the stress of high rent and mortgages makes freedom difficult—that's why we're providing affordable housing and jobs that pay more due to not going through the system.
Crowdfunding Strategies:
- Property acquisition: Pool resources to purchase land that's divided among contributors or opened to Network members
- Equipment funding: Like a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), pay upfront for equipment or infrastructure, get returns when it's productive
- Emergency funds: Voluntary mutual aid pools for members facing hardship
- Business launch support: Help members start counter-economic ventures
Crowdfunding can purchase properties to be divided up and can purchase properties that will be used by people who don't currently desire to own their own plots. Similarly, equipment to meet farming or housing needs can be funded like a CSA—you pay upfront and then get your money back and then some when the product is finished.
Trade & Barter: The Foundation of Counter-Economics
The establishment of a strong network of trade is one of if not THE most critical elements to an effective and resilient operation. Without robust trading relationships, you remain dependent on state-controlled markets and vulnerable to their failures.
The Supply and Demand Issue
So many of the best people are hidden away from outsiders, or hiding from their own morals by producing wealth and intel for the state. There are real reasons for any person in this era to fear retribution from the state if they do business outside of the regulatory and "tax" (extortion) system.
That's why we need to start offering an alternative option for people to choose that doesn't single them out individually but instead provides logical reasons to feel secure against the threat of the state.
Breaking the Cycle:
The Problem: When there is no network strong enough to support someone, they are less likely to take actions they see as dangerous. Similarly, when there is no certainty that there will be a market for someone's farm goods, they won't necessarily have the resources to expand for the risk of having food they can't sell.
The Solution: We are filling in that gap in supply with dedication and our own manpower. More importantly, the gap is being filled by local people in their own communities. We are simply enabling those interactions.
The same issue arises for consumers of agorist goods. Agorist goods are always cheaper on the conscience than those that fund extortion, but that does not mean they are cheap enough for many to afford in day-to-day life. Additionally, agorist consumers do not find the supply for their own needs to be consistent, varied, or crowd-tested. There can be a lack of options that leads to an unfair market price.
There is much more wealth to be grown in our network than is currently being distributed within it. If the demand is no longer there for local goods in an area, that should not restrict someone from growing a crop or offering something. The caravan and individual people will fill in the network just as semi trucks do today for larger companies.
Value Exchanges: Diversifying Your Trading Power
How do you innovate your approach to building trust in relationships? Trust is essential for effective networking. It is the foundation of functional relationships. The last thing freedom-oriented individuals need is to think they have to work 8-hour days at a business that is not doing anything to create anarchy in this lifetime, right now.
When we meet an anarchist, we don't try to direct them towards labor but towards intellectual understandings of how to create anarchy in this lifetime. Wealth gained is more useful when it is not being bled out towards the state.
Front-Swap: Expanding Your Inventory
Have more than you can sell? Having difficulty finding customers? If your goal at any given moment is to gain a store of value such as gold, silver, or cash from a potential customer, then you must have something they are willing to trade you for. The larger your variety of agorist products, the higher your chance is that you'll have a product someone you encounter will want.
The Front-Swap Strategy:
The Concept: If you already have an established network of trade and barter and the products you trade have a long-term store-of-value sufficient to easily sell the product before it loses value, then you can "front" (give a portion of your product to someone you trust, usually at a discounted rate, in exchange for a portion of theirs).
The Benefit: In this way, you both have more products to offer customers, and you are able to sell one-another's goods in a variety of untapped markets. The power this affords participants (traders) is to make them into economic powerhouses, far more capable than your average person at getting wealth from a given passer-by in exchange for a good.
When attempting to sell cannabis wax on the streets of Oakland, prospective customers would inform me of the products they would be willing to trade for if not the wax I had available. Many would ask for flower, or some other substance I didn't have to offer—and I missed the sale as a result. My goal was to support the grey and black market by offering products produced and sold by individuals seeking to be free from extortion and regulation, but I lacked sufficient variety to sell more than the one product I had available.
Don't have the cash to diversify? That's where front-swapping solves the problem. By trading inventory with trusted partners, you both expand your offerings without additional capital investment.
Turning Statists into Unwitting Agorists
Buying items from a statist using gold or silver places them in a unique position: they now possess a form of wealth that they are highly unlikely to ever report to or surrender to the State. Because precious metals operate outside traditional fiat systems and are inherently private, accepting them subtly pulls individuals into the parallel economy.
In effect, by engaging in such a transaction, you transform a statist into an unwitting economic agorist, contributing to the growth of a decentralized, freedom-oriented market, one transaction at a time.
This tactic doesn't require any explicit ideological conversion; it simply leverages the universal desire for real wealth and security. As more individuals experience the tangible benefits and privacy of using sound money, their reliance on and trust in the State's inflationary currency naturally diminishes. Each direct exchange of value outside the State's purview strengthens the parallel economy, paving the way for greater individual autonomy and market freedom.
Value Preservation: Making Your Wealth Last
Canning, dehydrating, freeze-drying, root cellars, precious metals, freezers—all can be used to give a trader more time to sell their goods or services. The longer you can preserve value, the more flexibility you have in trading.
Preservation Strategies:
- Food preservation: Canning, dehydrating, freeze-drying extend shelf life from days to years
- Cold storage: Freezers and root cellars for bulk purchases and seasonal abundance
- Precious metals: Silver and gold preserve purchasing power indefinitely
- Durable goods: Tools, equipment, and supplies that retain value over time
- Skills and knowledge: The most portable form of preserved value
If I have more freezer space, I am able to accept and preserve a wider variety of consumable and sellable items. If a customer has more freezer space, they are more able to accept a larger amount of beef (for example), which ultimately saves them a lot of money.
Morgan and I, for example, don't consider ourselves able to afford to purchase beef in quantities less than 1/4 or 1/2 a cow because we now have the freezer space to store it, so we can always buy our meat in bulk which affords us both personal nutrition and a constant product we make available for trade to others.
How You Can Spread Freedom
We support people in translating their lifestyle away from the tax system and into the network. In order to fully detach, you must reclaim your income, housing, business and expenditures. There are many resources on this site to help you transition into a new life.
If you are not ready to transition in one or more of these areas, you can still spread freedom where you are by employing the following strategies.
Freedom Through Goods and Services
If you want to spread freedom in your area, start by identifying a need people have for a good or service and find someone who is willing to meet that need. Work with that person to create a model where they are able to produce a good or provide a service at a cost and value that is comparable to the market rate but without funding or complying with the state in any way.
Freedom Through Housing
Find ways of circumventing the state through providing tax-free shelter for those who are also actively trying to create and grow the network. The easiest way to do this is to create a caravan outside of a city or town where the caravan members support each other in taking advantage of the amenities of the city or town. Members can earn income remotely or through interactions with the people of the town.
You can also create an inner-city or outer-city outpost to support visiting caravans and provide a way out for people still stuck in the system. A third option would be to become a Network Host and help those trying to gain a new position in the network.
Grow Your Network
The most effective way to grow your network is to find people both local and remote to collaborate with on creating new offerings in the network.
To find these contacts, you can search within the network via The Adventurer's Hall. To source new contacts in your area, spread word of the network with those you meet. Identify others who are looking for ways to be more free.
You can also create meetups and marketspaces to discuss options, form and execute plans, and conduct trade with those who attend. If nomadic, such spaces should be created when possible, or you can locate a preexisting space near you to make contact and trade with others in the network. If stationary, the aim is to have a regular network meeting and market space available near you.
Next Steps
Ready to see these tactics in action through mobile communities? Read Nomadic Markets & Caravans to understand how traveling marketplaces spread counter-economics.
Want deeper philosophical understanding of why these tactics work? Visit Why Agorism Works in The Library.
Need practical solutions to specific problems? Check Beyond State Solutions for voluntary alternatives to state services.