Cyphernomicon Top
Cyphernomicon 4.4

Goals and Ideology -- Privacy, Freedom, New Approaches:
"Welcome to Cypherpunks"


    4.4.1. This is the message each new subscriber to the Cypherpunks
            lists gets, by Eric Hughes:
    4.4.2. "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." [Eric
            Hughes, 1993-07-21 version]
  

Next Page: 4.5 "Cypherpunks Write Code"
Previous Page: 4.3 Why a Statement of Ideology?

By Tim May, see README

HTML by Jonathan Rochkind