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about Cypherpunks (fwd) "instant faq"
Someone on the FutureCulture list asked about Cypherpunks.
I took the opportunity to be the first to reply, to try to
get 1) hard information there and 2) some practical advice
on how to participate. I hope my tone was not too discouraging.
Others might want to take advantage of the "instant faq" I threw
together, if you see queries in other places.
strick
cypherpunks write code
Forwarded message:
# Subject: about Cypherpunks
# To: [email protected]
# Date: Thu, 14 Oct 93 13:54:27 PDT
# From: henry strickland <[email protected]>
#
# # Does anyone here know about Cypherpunks?
#
# The list is pretty high volume, and is currently experiencing
# signal/noise problems, but that should be nothing new to FCers :-)
#
# <[email protected]>
#
# You might first check out the archives
#
# ftp://soda.berkeley.edu:/pub/cypherpunks
#
# to see if it holds your interest. It is a list on which you
# should do some serious reading before beginning to post.
#
#
#
# cypherpunk strick
# cypherpunks love to practice
#
#
#
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# Cypherpunks assume privacy is a good thing and wish there were more
# of it. Cypherpunks acknowledge that those who want privacy must
# create it for themselves and not expect governments, corporations, or
# other large, faceless organizations to grant them privacy out of
# beneficence. Cypherpunks know that people have been creating their
# own privacy for centuries with whispers, envelopes, closed doors, and
# couriers. Cypherpunks do not seek to prevent other people from
# speaking about their experiences or their opinions.
#
# The most important means to the defense of privacy is encryption. To
# encrypt is to indicate the desire for privacy. But to encrypt with
# weak cryptography is to indicate not too much desire for privacy.
# Cypherpunks hope that all people desiring privacy will learn how best
# to defend it.
#
# Cypherpunks are therefore devoted to cryptography. Cypherpunks wish
# to learn about it, to teach it, to implement it, and to make more of
# it. Cypherpunks know that cryptographic protocols make social
# structures. Cypherpunks know how to attack a system and how to
# defend it. Cypherpunks know just how hard it is to make good
# cryptosystems.
#
# Cypherpunks love to practice. They love to play with public key
# cryptography. They love to play with anonymous and pseudonymous mail
# forwarding and delivery. They love to play with DC-nets. They love
# to play with secure communications of all kinds.
#
# Cypherpunks write code. They know that someone has to write code to
# defend privacy, and since it's their privacy, they're going to write
# it. Cypherpunks publish their code so that their fellow cypherpunks
# may practice and play with it. Cypherpunks realize that security is
# not built in a day and are patient with incremental progress.
#
# Cypherpunks don't care if you don't like the software they write.
# Cypherpunks know that software can't be destroyed. Cypherpunks know
# that a widely dispersed system can't be shut down.
#
# Cypherpunks will make the networks safe for privacy.
#
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
#
# A Cypherpunk's Manifesto
#
# by Eric Hughes
#
# Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age.
# Privacy is not secrecy. A private matter is something one doesn't
# want the whole world to know, but a secret matter is something one
# doesn't want anybody to know. Privacy is the power to selectively
# reveal oneself to the world.
#
# 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? One could pass laws against it,
# but the freedom of speech, even more than privacy, is fundamental to
# an open society; we seek not to restrict any speech at all. If many
# parties speak together in the same forum, each can speak to all the
# others and aggregate together knowledge about individuals and other
# parties. The power of electronic communications has enabled such
# group speech, and it will not go away merely because we might want it
# to.
#
# Since we desire privacy, we must ensure that each party to a
# transaction have knowledge only of that which is directly necessary
# for that transaction. Since any information can be spoken of, we
# must ensure that we reveal as little as possible. In most cases
# personal identity is not salient. When I purchase a magazine at a
# store and hand cash to the clerk, there is no need to know who I am.
# When I ask my electronic mail provider to send and receive messages,
# my provider need not know to whom I am speaking or what I am saying
# or what others are saying to me; my provider only need know how to
# get the message there and how much I owe them in fees. When my
# identity is revealed by the underlying mechanism of the transaction,
# I have no privacy. I cannot here selectively reveal myself; I must
# _always_ reveal myself.
#
# Therefore, privacy in an open society requires anonymous transaction
# systems. Until now, cash has been the primary such system. An
# anonymous transaction system is not a secret transaction system. An
# anonymous system empowers individuals to reveal their identity when
# desired and only when desired; this is the essence of privacy.
#
# Privacy in an open society also requires cryptography. If I say
# something, I want it heard only by those for whom I intend it. If
# the content of my speech is available to the world, I have no
# privacy. To encrypt is to indicate the desire for privacy, and to
# encrypt with weak cryptography is to indicate not too much desire for
# privacy. Furthermore, to reveal one's identity with assurance when
# the default is anonymity requires the cryptographic signature.
#
# We cannot expect governments, corporations, or other large, faceless
# organizations to grant us privacy out of their beneficence. It is to
# their advantage to speak of us, and we should expect that they will
# speak. To try to prevent their speech is to fight against the
# realities of information. Information does not just want to be free,
# it longs to be free. Information expands to fill the available
# storage space. Information is Rumor's younger, stronger cousin;
# Information is fleeter of foot, has more eyes, knows more, and
# understands less than Rumor.
#
# We must defend our own privacy if we expect to have any. We must
# come together and create systems which allow anonymous transactions
# to take place. People have been defending their own privacy for
# centuries with whispers, darkness, envelopes, closed doors, secret
# handshakes, and couriers. The technologies of the past did not allow
# for strong privacy, but electronic technologies do.
#
# We the Cypherpunks are dedicated to building anonymous systems. We
# are defending our privacy with cryptography, with anonymous mail
# forwarding systems, with digital signatures, and with electronic
# money.
#
# Cypherpunks write code. We know that someone has to write software
# to defend privacy, and since we can't get privacy unless we all do,
# we're going to write it. We publish our code so that our fellow
# Cypherpunks may practice and play with it. Our code is free for all
# to use, worldwide. We don't much care if you don't approve of the
# software we write. We know that software can't be destroyed and that
# a widely dispersed system can't be shut down.
#
# Cypherpunks deplore regulations on cryptography, for encryption is
# fundamentally a private act. The act of encryption, in fact, removes
# information from the public realm. Even laws against cryptography
# reach only so far as a nation's border and the arm of its violence.
# Cryptography will ineluctably spread over the whole globe, and with
# it the anonymous transactions systems that it makes possible.
#
# For privacy to be widespread it must be part of a social contract.
# People must come and together deploy these systems for the common
# good. Privacy only extends so far as the cooperation of one's
# fellows in society. We the Cypherpunks seek your questions and your
# concerns and hope we may engage you so that we do not deceive
# ourselves. We will not, however, be moved out of our course because
# some may disagree with our goals.
#
# The Cypherpunks are actively engaged in making the networks safer for
# privacy. Let us proceed together apace.
#
# Onward.
#
# Eric Hughes
# <[email protected]>
#
# 9 March 1993
#
#