Editing Cypherpunk (section)

== History ==

=== Before the mailing list ===

Until about the 1970s, [[cryptography]] was mainly practiced in secret by military or spy agencies. However, that changed when two publications brought it into public awareness: the first publicly available work on [[public-key cryptography]], by [[Whitfield Diffie]] and [[Martin Hellman]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Patent Falls, and the Internet Dances |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/090697patent.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210312105444/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/090697patent.html |archive-date=2021-03-12 |access-date=2020-02-04 |website=archive.nytimes.com}}</ref> and the US government publication of the [[Data Encryption Standard]] (DES), a [[block cipher]] which became very widely used.

The technical roots of Cypherpunk ideas have been traced back to work by cryptographer [[David Chaum]] on topics such as anonymous digital cash and pseudonymous reputation systems, described in his paper "Security without Identification: Transaction Systems to Make Big Brother Obsolete" (1985).<ref name="narayanan">Arvind Narayanan: [http://randomwalker.info/publications/crypto-dream-part1.pdf What Happened to the Crypto Dream?, Part 1] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191029143759/http://randomwalker.info/publications/crypto-dream-part1.pdf |date=2019-10-29 }}. IEEE Security & Privacy. Volume 11, Issue 2, March–April 2013, pages 75-76, ISSN 1540-7993</ref>

In the late 1980s, these ideas coalesced into something like a movement.<ref name=narayanan/>

=== Etymology and the Cypherpunks mailing list ===
<!-- TODO: see whether there are any RSs to the effect that the Secret Admirers list in [[Cryptonomicon]] was the cypherpunk list. -->
In late 1992, [[Eric Hughes (cypherpunk)|Eric Hughes]], [[Timothy C. May]], and [[John Gilmore (activist)|John Gilmore]] founded a small group that met monthly at Gilmore's company [[Cygnus Solutions]] in the [[San Francisco Bay Area]] and was humorously termed ''cypherpunks'' by [[Jude Milhon]] at one of the first meetings—derived from ''[[cipher]]'' and ''[[cyberpunk]]''.<ref name=":0">[[Robert Manne]]: [https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2011/february/1324596189/robert-manne/cypherpunk-revolutionary The Cypherpunk Revolutionary - Julian Assange] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210329105158/https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2011/february/1324596189/robert-manne/cypherpunk-revolutionary |date=2021-03-29 }}. [[The Monthly]] March, 2011, No. 65</ref> In November 2006, the word was added to the [[Oxford English Dictionary]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog/43743|title=ResourceBlog Article: Oxford English Dictionary Updates Some Entries & Adds New Words; Bada-Bing, Cypherpunk, and Wi-Fi Now in the OED|date=21 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110521191819/http://web.resourceshelf.com/go/resourceblog/43743|access-date=5 September 2020|archive-date=2011-05-21}}</ref>

The Cypherpunks [[mailing list]] was started in 1992, and by 1994 had 700 subscribers.<ref name=":0" /> At its peak, it was a very active forum with technical discussions ranging over mathematics, cryptography, computer science, political and philosophical discussion, personal arguments and attacks, etc., with some [[Spam (electronic)|spam]] thrown in. An email from [[John Gilmore (activist)|John Gilmore]] reports an average of 30 messages a day from December 1, 1996, to March 1, 1999, and suggests that the number was probably higher earlier.<ref>{{Cite mailing list|url=http://cryptome.org/jya/cp-who.htm|title=Summary of cypherpunks discussion volume and participants|author-link = John Gilmore (activist)|last= Gilmore | first= John | date= 13 April 1999 | mailing-list= cypherpunks |via=Cryptome.org|access-date=5 September 2020|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074921/http://cryptome.org/jya/cp-who.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> The number of subscribers is estimated to have reached 2,000 in the year 1997.<ref name=":0" />

In early 1997, Jim Choate and Igor Chudov set up the Cypherpunks Distributed Remailer,<ref name="choatecdr">Jim Choate: "[http://cypherpunks.venona.com/date/1997/02/msg02037.html Cypherpunks Distributed Remailer] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071029074605/http://cypherpunks.venona.com/date/1997/02/msg02037.html |date=2007-10-29 }}". Cypherpunks mailing list. February 1997.</ref> a network of independent mailing list nodes intended to eliminate the [[single point of failure]] inherent in a centralized list architecture. At its peak, the Cypherpunks Distributed Remailer included at least seven nodes.<ref name="imchriscpunk">{{cite web|url=http://imchris.org/projects/cpunk.html|title=Cypherpunk Mailing List Information|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305051810/http://imchris.org/projects/cpunk.html|archive-date=2016-03-05}}</ref> By mid-2005, al-qaeda.net ran the only remaining node.<ref name="cphowto">{{Cite web|url=https://cpunks.org/cpunk/howto.html|title=Setting up a filtering CDR node for Cypherpunks|date=5 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141205102841/https://cpunks.org/cpunk/howto.html|access-date=5 September 2020|archive-date=2014-12-05}}</ref> In mid-2013, following a brief outage, the al-qaeda.net node's list software was changed from [[Majordomo (software)|Majordomo]] to [[GNU Mailman]],<ref name=backonair>Riad S. Wahby: "[https://cpunks.org//pipermail/cypherpunks/2013-July/000001.html back on the airwaves] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422105120/https://cpunks.org//pipermail/cypherpunks/2013-July/000001.html |date=2016-04-22 }}". Cypherpunks mailing list. July 2013.</ref> and subsequently the node was renamed to cpunks.org.<ref name=domainchange>Riad S. Wahby: "[https://cpunks.org//pipermail/cypherpunks/2013-July/000011.html domain change] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422083028/https://cpunks.org//pipermail/cypherpunks/2013-July/000011.html |date=2016-04-22 }}". Cypherpunks mailing list. July 2013.</ref> The CDR architecture is now defunct, though the list administrator stated in 2013 that he was exploring a way to integrate this functionality with the new mailing list software.<ref name=backonair/>

For a time, the cypherpunks mailing list was a popular tool with mailbombers,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://cypherpunks.venona.com/date/1997/02/msg01681.html|title=Re: POST: The Frightening Dangers of Moderation|date=30 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071030112059/http://cypherpunks.venona.com/date/1997/02/msg01681.html|access-date=5 September 2020|archive-date=2007-10-30}}</ref> who would subscribe a victim to the mailing list in order to cause a deluge of messages to be sent to him or her. (This was usually done as a prank, in contrast to the style of terrorist referred to as a mailbomber.) This precipitated the mailing list sysop(s) to institute a reply-to-subscribe system. Approximately two hundred messages a day was typical for the mailing list, divided between personal arguments and attacks, political discussion, technical discussion, and early spam.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://cypherpunks.venona.com/date/1997/01/msg02533.html|title=Re: Re: Add To Your Monthly Income!!|date=22 August 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080822071741/http://cypherpunks.venona.com/date/1997/01/msg02533.html|access-date=5 September 2020|archive-date=2008-08-22}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://cypherpunks.venona.com/date/1997/04/|title=Cypherpunks Date Index for 1997 04|date=21 October 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061021180914/http://cypherpunks.venona.com/date/1997/04/|access-date=5 September 2020|archive-date=2006-10-21}}</ref>

The cypherpunks mailing list had extensive discussions of the public policy issues related to cryptography and on the politics and philosophy of concepts such as anonymity, pseudonyms, reputation, and privacy. These discussions continue both on the remaining node and elsewhere as the list has become increasingly moribund.{{Citation needed|date=January 2023}}

Events such as the [[GURPS Cyberpunk]] raid<ref>{{cite web |last1=Macgregor |first1=Jody |title=That time the US Secret Service mistook a cyberpunk RPG for a hacker's handbook |url=https://www.dicebreaker.com/categories/roleplaying-game/feature/gurps-cyberpunk-rpg-us-secret-service |website=Dicebreaker |access-date=28 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230325150609/https://www.dicebreaker.com/categories/roleplaying-game/feature/gurps-cyberpunk-rpg-us-secret-service |archive-date=25 March 2023 |language=en |date=10 February 2020}}</ref> lent weight to the idea that private individuals needed to take steps to protect their privacy. In its heyday, the list discussed public policy issues related to cryptography, as well as more practical nuts-and-bolts mathematical, computational, technological, and cryptographic matters. The list had a range of viewpoints and there was probably no completely unanimous agreement on anything. The general attitude, though, definitely put personal privacy and personal liberty above all other considerations.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Pagliery|first=Jose|title=Bitcoin and the Future of Money|year=2014|isbn=978-1-62937-036-1|pages=9|publisher=Triumph Books }}</ref>

==== Early discussion of online privacy ====
The list was discussing questions about privacy, government monitoring, corporate control of information, and related issues in the early 1990s that did not become major topics for broader discussion until at least ten years later. Some list participants were highly radical on these issues.{{Citation needed|date=October 2022}}

Those wishing to understand the context of the list might refer to the history of cryptography; in the early 1990s, the US government considered cryptography software a [[munition]] for export purposes ([[Pretty Good Privacy|PGP]] source code was published as a paper book to bypass these regulations and demonstrate their futility). In 1992, a deal between NSA and SPA allowed export of cryptography based on 40-bit RC2 and RC4 which was considered relatively weak (and especially after SSL was created, there were many contests to break it). The US government had also tried to subvert cryptography through schemes such as [[Skipjack (cipher)|Skipjack]] and key escrow. It was also not widely known that all communications were logged by government agencies (which would later be revealed during the [[NSA warrantless surveillance controversy|NSA]] and [[Hepting v. AT&T|AT&T scandals]]) though this was taken as an obvious axiom by list members{{Citation needed|date=September 2019}}.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.exabeam.com/information-security/clipper-chip/|title=Clipper Chip: How the Government Wanted to Put a Backdoor in Your Phone|date=April 2, 2019|website=Exabeam|access-date=December 6, 2020|archive-date=January 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125093337/https://www.exabeam.com/information-security/clipper-chip/|url-status=live}}</ref>

The original cypherpunk mailing list, and the first list spin-off, ''coderpunks'', were originally hosted on [[John Gilmore (activist)|John Gilmore]]'s toad.com, but after a falling out with the sysop over moderation, the list was migrated to several cross-linked mail-servers in what was called the "distributed mailing list."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://cypherpunks.venona.com/date/1997/01/msg02001.html|title=Re: Sandy and the Doc|website=Cypherpunks.venona.com|access-date=5 September 2020|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303182210/http://cypherpunks.venona.com/date/1997/01/msg02001.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://cypherpunks.venona.com/date/1997/02/msg00627.html|title=Newgroup -- distributed mailing list on the way?|website=Cypherpunks.venona.com|access-date=5 September 2020|archive-date=30 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071030160503/http://cypherpunks.venona.com/date/1997/02/msg00627.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The ''coderpunks'' list, open by invitation only, existed for a time. ''Coderpunks'' took up more technical matters and had less discussion of public policy implications. There are several lists today that can trace their lineage directly to the original Cypherpunks list: the cryptography list (cryptography@metzdowd.com), the financial cryptography list (fc-announce@ifca.ai), and a small group of closed (invitation-only) lists as well.{{Citation needed|date=October 2022}}

Toad.com continued to run with the existing subscriber list, those that didn't unsubscribe, and was mirrored on the new distributed mailing list, but messages from the distributed list didn't appear on toad.com.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://cypherpunks.venona.com/date/1997/02/msg02277.html|title=Switching to full traffic mode|website=Cypherpunks.venona.com|access-date=5 September 2020|archive-date=30 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071030150847/http://cypherpunks.venona.com/date/1997/02/msg02277.html|url-status=live}}</ref> As the list faded in popularity, so too did it fade in the number of cross-linked subscription nodes.{{Citation needed|date=January 2023}}

To some extent, the cryptography list<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mail-archive.com/cryptography@metzdowd.com|title=Cryptography|website=Mail-archive.com|access-date=2010-08-15|archive-date=2021-03-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210323181052/https://www.mail-archive.com/cryptography@metzdowd.com/|url-status=live}}</ref> acts as a successor to cypherpunks; it has many of the people and continues some of the same discussions. However, it is a moderated list, considerably less zany and somewhat more technical. A number of current systems in use trace to the mailing list, including [[Pretty Good Privacy]], [[/dev/random]] in the [[Linux kernel]] (the actual code has been completely reimplemented several times since then) and today's [[anonymous remailer]]s.{{Citation needed|date=January 2023}}