Editing Cypherpunk (section)

== Main principles ==
The basic ideas can be found in ''[https://www.activism.net/cypherpunk/manifesto.html A Cypherpunk's Manifesto]'' ([[Eric Hughes (cypherpunk)|Eric Hughes]], 1993): "Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age. ... We cannot expect governments, corporations, or other large, faceless organizations to grant us privacy ... We must defend our own privacy if we expect to have any. ... Cypherpunks write code. We know that someone has to write software to defend privacy, and ... we're going to write it."<ref name="cypherpunk">{{citation |first=Eric |last=Hughes |year=1993 |url=http://www.activism.net/cypherpunk/manifesto.html |title=A Cypherpunk's Manifesto |access-date=2002-02-25 |archive-date=2021-03-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210324152736/https://activism.net/cypherpunk/manifesto.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Some are or were senior people at major hi-tech companies and others are well-known researchers (see [[#Notable cypherpunks|list with affiliations]] below).

The first mass media discussion of cypherpunks was in a 1993 ''[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]'' article by [[Steven Levy]] titled ''Crypto Rebels'':

{{blockquote|The people in this room hope for a world where an individual's informational footprints—everything from an opinion on abortion to the medical record of an actual abortion—can be traced only if the individual involved chooses to reveal them; a world where coherent messages shoot around the globe by network and microwave, but intruders and feds trying to pluck them out of the vapor find only gibberish; a world where the tools of prying are transformed into the instruments of privacy.

There is only one way this vision will materialize, and that is by widespread use of cryptography. Is this technologically possible? Definitely. The obstacles are political—some of the most powerful forces in government are devoted to the control of these tools. In short, there is a war going on between those who would liberate crypto and those who would suppress it. The seemingly innocuous bunch strewn around this conference room represents the vanguard of the pro-crypto forces. Though the battleground seems remote, the stakes are not: The outcome of this struggle may determine the amount of freedom our society will grant us in the 21st century. To the Cypherpunks, freedom is an issue worth some risk.<ref name=levyarticle>{{cite magazine
| first = Steven
| last = Levy
| date = May 1993
| magazine = Wired
| title = Crypto Rebels
| url = https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.02/crypto.rebels.html
| access-date = 2017-03-06
| archive-date = 2014-03-01
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140301101405/http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.02/crypto.rebels.html
| url-status = live
}}</ref>}}

The three masked men on the cover of that edition of ''Wired'' were prominent cypherpunks [[Timothy C. May|Tim May]], [[Eric Hughes (cypherpunk)|Eric Hughes]] and [[John Gilmore (activist)|John Gilmore]].

Later, Levy wrote a book, ''Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government&nbsp;– Saving Privacy in the Digital Age'',<ref name="levybook">{{cite book
  | first= Steven
  | last = Levy
  | title = Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government&nbsp;– Saving Privacy in the Digital Age
  | publisher = Penguin
  | year = 2001
  | isbn = 0-14-024432-8
}}</ref>
covering the [[crypto wars]] of the 1990s in detail. "Code Rebels" in the title is almost synonymous with cypherpunks.

The term ''cypherpunk'' is mildly ambiguous. In most contexts it means anyone advocating cryptography as a tool for social change, social impact and expression. However, it can also be used to mean a participant in the Cypherpunks [[electronic mailing list]] described [[#The cypherpunks mailing list|below]]. The two meanings obviously overlap, but they are by no means synonymous.

Documents exemplifying cypherpunk ideas include Timothy C. May's ''The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto'' (1992)<ref name="CAM">{{citation |author=Timothy C. May |author-link=Timothy C. May |year=1992 |url=http://www.activism.net/cypherpunk/crypto-anarchy.html |title=The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto |access-date=2021-02-27 |archive-date=2021-02-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224050018/https://activism.net/cypherpunk/crypto-anarchy.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and ''The [[Cyphernomicon]]'' (1994),<ref name="cnomicon">{{cite web|url=https://www.cypherpunks.to/faq/cyphernomicron/cyphernomicon.html|title=The Cyphernomicon: Cypherpunks FAQ and More, Version 0.666|last=May|first=Timothy C.|date=September 10, 1994|work=Cypherpunks.to|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612074817/https://www.cypherpunks.to/faq/cyphernomicron/cyphernomicon.html|archive-date=2018-06-12|access-date=June 12, 2018}} as well as Hughes's</ref> ''A Cypherpunk's Manifesto''.<ref name="cypherpunk" />

=== Privacy of communications ===

A very basic cypherpunk issue is [[secrecy of communication|privacy in communications]] and [[data retention]]. John Gilmore said he wanted "a guarantee -- with physics and mathematics, not with laws -- that we can give ourselves real privacy of personal communications."<ref>{{citation
|author = John Gilmore
|title = home page
|url = http://www.toad.com/gnu/
|access-date = 2010-08-15
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100427075340/http://www.toad.com/gnu/
|archive-date = 2010-04-27
}}</ref>

Such guarantees require [[strong cryptography]], so cypherpunks are fundamentally opposed to government policies attempting to control the usage or export of cryptography, which remained an issue throughout the late 1990s. The ''Cypherpunk Manifesto'' stated "Cypherpunks deplore regulations on cryptography, for encryption is fundamentally a private act."<ref name="cypherpunk"/>

This was a central issue for many cypherpunks. Most were passionately opposed to various government attempts to limit cryptography—[[Export of cryptography from the United States|export laws]], promotion of limited key length ciphers, and especially [[escrowed encryption]].

=== Anonymity and pseudonyms ===

The questions of [[anonymity]], [[pseudonym]]ity and [[reputation]] were also extensively discussed.

Arguably, the possibility of [[anonymity|anonymous]] speech, and publication is vital for an open society and genuine freedom of speech—this is the position of most cypherpunks.<ref>Emphasis on the word possibility; as Sarah Smith notes, even cypherpunks recognize the impossibility of absolute anonymity. For a range of discussion on the complexities of defending anonymity within maintaining security (against terrorism e.g.), see Sarah E. Smith, "Threading the First Amendment Needle: Anonymous Speech, Online Harassment, and Washington's Cyberstalking Statute", ''Washington Law Review'' 93/3 (Oct. 2018): 1563-1608; Julian Assange, Jacob Appelbaum, Andy Muller-Maguhn, and Jérémie Zimmermann, ''Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet'' (OR Books, 2012/2016). {{ISBN|978-1-939293-00-8}}, Ebook {{ISBN|978-1-939293-01-5}}; Dennis Bailey, ''The Open Society Paradox : Why the 21st Century Calls for More Openness — Not Less'' (Dulles VA: Potomac, 2004), 28-29; and Eric Hughes <hughes@soda.berkeley.edu>, "A Cypherpunk's Manifesto" (9 March 1993): https://www.activism.net/cypherpunk/manifesto.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210324152736/https://activism.net/cypherpunk/manifesto.html |date=2021-03-24 }}</ref>

=== Censorship and monitoring ===

In general, cypherpunks opposed the censorship and monitoring from government and police.

In particular, the US government's [[Clipper chip]] scheme for [[escrowed encryption]] of telephone conversations (encryption supposedly secure against most attackers, but breakable by government) was seen as [[anathema]] by many on the list. This was an issue that provoked strong opposition and brought many new recruits to the cypherpunk ranks. List participant [[Matt Blaze]] found a serious flaw<ref>{{citation
| chapter = Protocol failure in the escrowed encryption standard
| author = Matt Blaze
| title=Proceedings of the 2nd ACM Conference on Computer and communications security - CCS '94 | year = 1994
| pages=59–67 | doi=10.1145/191177.191193 | isbn=0897917324 | s2cid=14602435 | doi-access = free
}}</ref> in the scheme, helping to hasten its demise.

Steven Schear first suggested the [[warrant canary]] in 2002 to thwart the secrecy provisions of [[court order]]s and [[national security letters]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/cypherpunks-lne-archive/conversations/messages/5869/|title=Yahoo! Groups|website=groups.yahoo.com|language=en-US|date=2002-10-31|access-date=2019-02-25|archive-date=2019-02-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190225032546/https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/cypherpunks-lne-archive/conversations/messages/5869}}</ref> {{as of|2013}}, warrant canaries are gaining commercial acceptance.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/11/apple-takes-strong-privacy-stance-in-new-report-publishes-rare-warrant-canary|title=Apple takes strong privacy stance in new report, publishes rare "warrant canary"|work=Ars Technica|year=2013|access-date=2017-06-14|archive-date=2021-03-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308105315/https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/11/apple-takes-strong-privacy-stance-in-new-report-publishes-rare-warrant-canary/|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Hiding the act of hiding ===
{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2023}}
An important set of discussions concerns the use of cryptography in the presence of oppressive authorities. As a result, Cypherpunks have discussed and improved [[Steganography|steganographic]] methods that hide the use of crypto itself, or that allow interrogators to believe that they have forcibly extracted hidden information from a subject. For instance, ''[[Rubberhose (file system)|Rubberhose]]'' was a tool that partitioned and intermixed secret data on a drive with fake secret data, each of which accessed via a different password. Interrogators, having extracted a password, are led to believe that they have indeed unlocked the desired secrets, whereas in reality the actual data is still hidden. In other words, even its presence is hidden. Likewise, cypherpunks have also discussed under what conditions encryption may be used without being noticed by [[network monitoring]] systems installed by oppressive regimes.