The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto
The following was written by Timothy May in mid 1988:
A specter is haunting the modern world, the specter of crypto anarchy.
Computer technology is on the verge of providing the ability for individuals and groups to communicate and interact
with each other in a totally anonymous manner. Two persons may exchange messages, conduct business, and
negotiate electronic contracts without ever knowing the True Name, or legal identity, of the other. Interactions over
networks will be untraceable, via extensive re- routing of encrypted packets and tamper-proof boxes which implement
cryptographic protocols with nearly perfect assurance against any tampering. Reputations will be of central
importance, far more important in dealings than even the credit ratings of today. These developments will alter
completely the nature of government regulation, the ability to tax and control economic interactions, the ability to
keep information secret, and will even alter the nature of trust and reputation.
The technology for this revolution--and it surely will be both a social and economic revolution--has existed in theory
for the past decade. The methods are based upon public-key encryption, zero-knowledge interactive proof systems,
and various software protocols for interaction, authentication, and verification. The focus has until now been on
academic conferences in Europe and the U.S., conferences monitored closely by the National Security Agency. But
only recently have computer networks and personal computers attained sufficient speed to make the ideas practically
realizable. And the next ten years will bring enough additional speed to make the ideas economically feasible and
essentially unstoppable. High-speed networks, ISDN, tamper-proof boxes, smart cards, satellites, Ku-band
transmitters, multi-MIPS personal computers, and encryption chips now under development will be some of the
enabling technologies.
The State will of course try to slow or halt the spread of this technology, citing national security concerns, use of the
technology by drug dealers and tax evaders, and fears of societal disintegration. Many of these concerns will be valid;
crypto anarchy will allow national secrets to be trade freely and will allow illicit and stolen materials to be traded. An
anonymous computerized market will even make possible abhorrent markets for assassinations and extortion.
Various criminal and foreign elements will be active users of CryptoNet. But this will not halt the spread of crypto
anarchy.
Just as the technology of printing altered and reduced the power of medieval guilds and the social power structure, so
too will cryptologic methods fundamentally alter the nature of corporations and of government interference in
economic transactions. Combined with emerging information markets, crypto anarchy will create a liquid market for
any and all material which can be put into words and pictures. And just as a seemingly minor invention like barbed
wire made possible the fencing-off of vast ranches and farms, thus altering forever the concepts of land and property
rights in the frontier West, so too will the seemingly minor discovery out of an arcane branch of mathematics come to
be the wire clippers which dismantle the barbed wire around intellectual property.
Arise, you have nothing to lose but your barbed wire fences!
Source: https://www.activism.net/cypherpunk/crypto-anarchy.html
This is an incredible document on the beginnings of Bitcoin and blockchains. He makes a lot of lofty claims about the potential of the technology, but many are coming true today. Indeed, it is powering this website. He was off by about a decade before Bitcoin was released in 2009 but it is remarkable how deeply he understood the power and potential of this technology before it could even exist. Even before the Internet was the sure-fire medium of the future. Cheers to you Mr. May.
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