Plebdev.
Hi I'm Austin
developer / educator / hacker / flounder
BASED in Austin, TX.
Work
Agent Camp
Program Lead / Instructor
AI program coming out of HRF's AI for Individual Rights initiative. I help run hands-on workshops and trainings where activists, human rights defenders, and organizations learn to deploy open-source AI agents, automate workflows, and expand their capabilities.
Finite Computer
Co-Founder
Finite Computer is the company I co-founded to host Agent Camp and build the product around practical, human-centered AI agents and workflows.
Austin AI Club
Founder / Organizer
AI meetup I run in Austin for builders, researchers, and hackers to share demos, discuss practical AI work, and keep a durable topic registry of links, notes, and showcases.
PlebDevBench
Creator / Lead Developer
Local-first benchmark runner and hosted dashboard for evaluating local LLMs on agentic coding tasks across runtimes, harnesses, models, and test suites.
GTD Space
Creator / Lead Developer
Local-first GTD desktop app built with Tauri, React, and Rust. Private by default, with encrypted Git sync and backups for cross-device workflows when you want them.
dicktaint
Creator / Lead Developer
Local-first AI dictation app for private, low-latency voice to text. Built with Tauri, Rust, and local Whisper models for desktop and mobile workflows.
Media
HRF's AI Agent Camps
Featured / Agent Camp
Mini documentary from HRF highlighting the first eighteen months of its AI for Individual Rights program and the Agent Camp effort to help activists, human rights defenders, and organizations harness AI safely and effectively. I am featured for my work helping run Agent Camp.
Open-Source Payment Infrastructure: Building the Commons, Sustaining Contributors
Speaker / Panelist
From Bitcoin Takeover 2026's Power of Payments day at Bitcoin Park. A conversation on open-source Bitcoin payment infrastructure, Lightning's evolution, sustainable funding for contributors, and how new developers can get involved.
HRF AI for Individual Rights Grant
Grant Recipient / PlebDevs
Human Rights Foundation announced PlebDevs as one of the first projects supported through its AI for Individual Rights program, backing open-source AI education and tooling aligned with freedom tech.
OpenSats Funds Frostr
Grant Recipient / Frostr
OpenSats included Frostr in its Twelfth Wave of Nostr Grants, funding the next phase of threshold signing, key recovery, remote signing, and multi-device key management for Nostr.
Frostr Workshop - Bitcoin 2025 Vegas
Workshop Presenter
Austin & Topher's FROSTR workshop. Walking through the basics of the protocol and going through a live demo with the audience (signing a 6/12 Nostr multisig note live!)
Frostr Explained - Thank God For Nostr Podcast
Podcast Guest
A deep dive into FROSTR with myself and @cmd discussing how we're solving key recovery in the Nostr ecosystem and the technical challenges involved.
Skills
Full Stack Development
Frontend to backend, mobile to web—I ship production code. React, Next.js, Node.js, TypeScript, React Native. Startup MVPs, enterprise systems, everything in between.
Bitcoin & Lightning
4+ years deep in the Bitcoin stack. Lightning wallets, payment APIs, node infrastructure—I've built across products, open-source projects, developer tools, and enterprise implementation work.
Nostr Development
In the Nostr ecosystem since the early days. Shipped clients, platforms, and libraries like snstr. Zaps, NWC, NIP-46, remote signing—I know the protocol inside and out.
Protocol & Cryptography
Co-created Frostr—FROST threshold signatures for Nostr key recovery. I enjoy the deep end: cryptographic primitives, distributed systems, protocol-level engineering.
Developer Education
3+ years teaching devs to build on Bitcoin, Lightning, and Nostr. 1,000+ paid students, dozens of conference workshops, daily community support through Plebdevs. I make hard tech click.
AI Agents & Applied AI Education
Building Finite Computer and helping run HRF's Agent Camp. I teach practical, privacy-aware AI workflows for activists, human rights defenders, and organizations, and build tools that make open-source agents useful for real-world work.
About
I started my programming journey self-taught, driven by a passion and curiosity for Bitcoin and a desire to build applications that leverage the technology.
I joined Lambda School (now Bloomtech) Full Stack Developer Bootcamp in 2018. After graduating, I stayed on as a Team Lead, guiding students through the full curriculum. That's when I discovered my love for teaching and developer education.
I moved to Austin, TX to accelerate my journey into Bitcoin development. I joined PlebLab, where I launched Plebdevs—a Bitcoin app developer education platform.
Today, my work is centered on Finite Computer and Agent Camp, the AI program coming out of HRF's AI for Individual Rights initiative. I help run workshops and trainings for activists, human rights defenders, and organizations while building the product around practical, open-source AI agents.
I'm passionate about building and teaching useful tools at the edge of Bitcoin, Nostr, and AI.