{"id":37291,"date":"2020-04-03T14:56:41","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T11:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=37291"},"modified":"2025-08-29T14:59:05","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T11:59:05","slug":"what-is-crypto%e2%80%91anarchism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/what-is-crypto%e2%80%91anarchism\/","title":{"rendered":"What is crypto\u2011anarchism?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

1<\/span><\/p>\n

What is crypto\u2011anarchism? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Crypto\u2011anarchism is a strain of anarchism that uses cryptographically secured anonymisation technologies, digital pseudonyms and digital money to bypass state controls\u2014surveillance, censorship and taxation.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

2<\/span><\/p>\n

How did crypto\u2011anarchism emerge? <\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

In the 1940s Western intelligence agencies explored involving the recipient of a message in the encoding process. In 1973 British mathematician Clifford Cocks presented<\/a> a model in which an authorised recipient could choose two giant prime numbers and multiply them to obtain a third giant number used as a public key. There was no need to hide it because computing the two original numbers was practically impossible.<\/p>\n

In 1977 the concept became a working model when three professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)\u2014Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Leonard Adleman\u2014released<\/a> a public\u2011key cryptographic algorithm based on the computational difficulty of factoring large integers, named RSA (after their surnames).<\/p>\n

Researchers expected RSA to be in demand as email became widespread, providing tools to ensure the privacy of network messages and to authenticate their sources.<\/p>\n

After Scientific American reported<\/a> on RSA, the NSA concluded the algorithm could limit its ability to track communications. The agency classified it as \u201cmunitions\u201d subject to federal arms\u2011smuggling laws, requiring a special licence to distribute.<\/p>\n

In the 1970s, as the first working prototypes of the internet appeared, data protection in an open environment became pressing. In 1978 David Chaum, an American cryptographer and a student at the University of California, Berkeley, devised blind digital signatures\u2014a public\u2011key encryption model. Chaum\u2019s work allowed creation of databases of people who could remain anonymous while still guaranteeing the accuracy of information they provided about themselves.<\/p>\n

Chaum envisaged digital voting that could be verified without revealing a voter\u2019s identity, and above all digital cash. In the mid\u20111980s he created a model in which users could make payments anonymously while guaranteeing the reality of funds. A circle of cryptographers learned of his work, and within it a movement formed that advocated computer technologies as a means of abolishing the state.<\/p>\n

The movement\u2019s chief ideologue was Timothy May, an American cryptographer and former Intel senior scientist. In 1987 May met Philip Salin, an American economist, entrepreneur and futurist, who founded<\/a> the American Information Exchange (AMiX), an online marketplace for trading data.<\/p>\n

May disliked the idea of an electronic venue where people could sell trivial information to each other across borders and at low fees. He imagined a global system enabling anonymous bilateral exchange of any information, akin to a corporate intelligence network. He later finalised this concept as the BlackNet system<\/a>, which required a non\u2011governmental digital currency and the ability to make untraceable payments in it.<\/p>\n

In 1985 he read David Chaum\u2019s \u201cSecurity without Identification: Transaction Systems to Make Big Brother Obsolete\u201d. In the article Chaum described a system that hides a buyer\u2019s identity using cryptographic methods. Exposure to this idea prompted May to study public\u2011key cryptographic protection, first described<\/a> by Whitfield Diffie, Ralph Merkle and Martin Hellman in 1976. May soon concluded that public\u2011key cryptography, together with networked computing, could \u201cdestroy social power structures\u201d.<\/p>\n

In September 1988 May wrote \u201cThe Crypto Anarchist Manifesto<\/a>\u201d, modelled on Karl Marx\u2019s \u201cCommunist Manifesto\u201d: \u201cA spectre is haunting the modern world, the spectre of crypto anarchy.\u201d According to the manifesto, information technologies will allow people to run their lives without governments, using cryptography, digital currencies and other decentralised tools.<\/p>\n

By May\u2019s own account, the ideological foundation of \u201cThe Crypto Anarchist Manifesto\u201d was anarcho\u2011capitalism, which emphasises voluntary transactions and free markets.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

3<\/span><\/p>\n

How did the Cypherpunks mailing list arise? <\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

In 1992 Timothy May, John Gilmore (a computer specialist and one of the founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation) and Eric Hughes (a mathematician at the University of California, Berkeley) invited 20 close friends to an informal meeting. They discussed the most topical questions in cryptography and programming.<\/p>\n

Such meetings became regular and seeded a movement. A mailing list was created to attract others who shared the founders\u2019 interests and core values. Soon the list, called \u201cCypherpunks<\/a>\u201d, had hundreds of subscribers testing ciphers, exchanging ideas and debating new developments. Correspondence used the latest methods at the time, such as PGP. Members debated politics, philosophy, computer science, cryptography and mathematics. In 1993 Eric Hughes published \u201cA Cypherpunk\u2019s Manifesto<\/a>\u201d, setting out the movement\u2019s key tenets:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cPrivacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age. [\u2026] Privacy in an open society requires cryptography. [\u2026] We, the cypherpunks, are dedicated to building anonymous systems. We defend our privacy with cryptography, anonymous mail forwarding systems, digital signatures, and electronic money. [\u2026] Cryptography will inevitably spread worldwide, and with it the anonymous transaction systems it makes possible.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

By 1997 the mailing list had about 2,000 subscribers and 30 messages a day. In 1995 the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, published<\/a> his first post on \u201cCypherpunks\u201d. In 2016 he released a book<\/a> about the movement titled \u201cCypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cypherpunk and crypto\u2011anarchism are related but not identical. The term \u201ccypherpunks\u201d was first used<\/a> by hacker and programmer Jude Milhon to refer to a group of crypto\u2011anarchists. The term \u201ccrypto\u2011anarchists\u201d first appeared in 1993 in an article<\/a> by Steven Levy, \u201cCrypto\u2011Rebels\u201d.<\/p>\n

Many writings by Timothy May and other pioneers of crypto\u2011anarchy were published<\/a> in 2001 in the anthology \u201cCrypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias\u201d, edited by the American philosopher Peter Ludlow. The contributors show governance structures emerging within online communities and the rise of ideals of political sovereignty.<\/p>\n

Ludlow views virtual communities as laboratories for experiments in building new societies and governance structures. Many experiments will fail, he argues, but given the synergies of the networked world, new types of society and governance may emerge that surpass the traditional.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

4<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the aims of crypto\u2011anarchism? <\/strong><\/p>\n

\n