
A Cypherpunk's Manifesto (1993) - dylmarcor
https://www.activism.net/cypherpunk/manifesto.html
======
dang
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14078524](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14078524)

------
rothbardrand
This, indirectly, and after a lot of work and several failed attempts at
solutions on the cypherpunks mailing list, resulted in bitcoin.

There was a movement at the time, coalesced by this manifesto, of the geekiest
of the nerds, the very few engineers who really cared about encryption,
privacy and libertarianism. (OG Libertarians)

For awhile, it was like a window into the world of a William Gibson novel.

Unfortunately, technology marches slowly, and by the time bitcoin was
released, the movement was a lot less strong than it was.

Now bitcoin crystalized a second cypherpunk movement around it... but it's
success over the past 5 years has attracted a whole lot of momo, traders,
players, "investors" and generally non-technical types who can't tell the
difference between ripple and bitcoin, except "Ripple has all the banks
excited, I'm gonna make bank!"

At some point, though, those eople will be less of an influence as we, as a
wider cypherpunk community, recognize, ironically, that identity and the trust
that a real identity can accrue, is what is key.

Adam Beck, Luke-Jr, Samson Mow, Matt Blue, and others I don't know as well are
accruing the riches of correct predictions, and a half decade of actions with
integrity, while the wannabe kings make their plans and push agreements, they
will be cast aside as their true intentions become more widely recognized, and
their proposals fail in the marketplace (you can't just rip code out of core
and call it "bitcoin" and expect it to survive-- the gyrations of BCH's hash
rate are a good example of this.)

------
CryptoPunk
A good elucidation of cypherpunk philosophy:

[https://medium.com/@VitalikButerin/a-proof-of-stake-
design-p...](https://medium.com/@VitalikButerin/a-proof-of-stake-design-
philosophy-506585978d51)

------
skybrian
re: "If two parties have some sort of dealings, then each has a memory of
their interaction. Each party can speak about their own memory of this; how
could anyone prevent it?"

This is defeatist. There are ways. Imperfect, but they exist.

There are legal remedies like HIPAA. It seems that we don't actually want the
health care system to share everything it knows about us.

Also, Snapchat got where it is by realizing its users want disappearing
messages and doing their best to give it to them.

------
natrius
It will always be valuable to know things about other people. Technologies
that enhance privacy without providing perfect privacy merely increase the
cost of technologies that collect data. Even with perfect privacy tech, people
sell their privacy for small discounts all the time already. Is the resulting
information asymmetry better or worse than sacrificing privacy altogether? I'm
not sure.

------
QAPereo
Does this really require a monicker? Can't we just call people opposed to the
freedom to privacy and encryption... luddites, authoritarians, or assholes?

~~~
jrs95
I think I prefer all three actually...Authoritarian Luddite Assholes.

But seriously, I don't think that's necessarily an accurate description of
everyone who's against encryption. Some of them just have a poor understanding
of the subject and are told total bullshit by other people about it. Often
times people who are allegedly "experts".

~~~
dylmarcor
I agree, it's the overall complete lack of education on any topic that's even
remotely cutting edge. Technologies and ideas move faster than the
institutions can keep up with. The only subject that should really be taught
now is the ability to self-educate as much as possible.

Ignorance to these kinds of things keeps people who would otherwise totally
support in the dark, and thus, afraid of it.

