Difference between revisions of "cypherpunk"

Revision as of 21:41, 12 July 2007

The cypherpunks (a portmanteau of cipher and punk based on cyberpunk) comprise an informal group of people interested in privacy and cryptography who originally communicated through the cypherpunks mailing list. The aim of the group was to achieve privacy and security through proactive use of cryptography. Events such as the GURPS Cyberpunk raid lent weight to the idea that private individuals needed to take steps themselves to protect their privacy. In its heyday, the list discussed the public policy issues related to cryptography, as well as more practical nuts-and-bolts mathematical, computational, technological, and cryptographic matters themselves.

A coderpunks list, open by invitation only, existed for a time. Coderpunks took up more technical matters and had less discussion of public policy implications.

The term cypherpunk was coined by Jude Milhon as a pun to describe cyberpunks who used cryptography. In November 2006, the word was proposed for inclusion in the Oxford English Dictionary.

The mailing list's best days have been behind it for some time, possibly peaking around 1997. A number of current systems in use trace their roots to this time, 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 remailers.

Cypherpunk, cypherpunks or cpunks are also occasionally used as a username and password on websites which require registration, especially if the user does not intend to return or does not wish to reveal information about himself. The account is left for later users.

The Cypherpunks included several notable computer industry figures.

Some well known cypherpunks

• Jon Callas (Technical lead on OpenPGP specification)
• Hugh Daniel (Former manager of the FreeS/WAN project)
• John Gilmore (One of the founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation)
• Ian Goldberg (Assistant Professor, University of Waterloo)
• Lucky Green (Author of first free software implementation of ring signatures)
• Eric Hughes (Author of A Cypherpunk's Manifesto)
• Tim May (Former chief scientist at Intel, author of A Crypto Anarchist Manifesto)
• Jude Milhon (A founding member of the cypherpunks)
• Len Sassaman (Current maintainer of the Mixmaster Remailer software)
• Peter Shipley (A founding member of the cypherpunks)
• Philip Zimmermann (inventor of PGP)

See also

• Anonymous P2P
• Cypherpunk anonymous remailer
• Crypto
• Crypto-anarchism

External links

• http://www.activism.net/cypherpunk/manifesto.html - A Cypherpunk's Manifesto written by Eric Hughes.
• http://www.activism.net/cypherpunk/crypto-anarchy.html - The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto written by Timothy C. May.
• http://lateclaindomita.bravehost.com/cyber.html - Spanish translation of A Cypherpunk's Manifesto translated by Raúl Racedo, Argentina.
• http://www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/6805/articles/crypto/cypherpunks/cyphernomicon/CP-FAQ - The Cyphernomicon by Timothy C. May ("Cypherpunks FAQ and More" from 1994! Need serious updating.)
• http://cypherpunks.venona.com - Archives of the first eight years of the mailing list.
• http://www.xml-dev.com/lurker/message/20061106.155725.b158c80a.en.html Cypherpunks make the Oxford English Dictionary.