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noxz.tech/articles/sic_manifestos/manifestos/a_cypherpunks_manifesto.txt
1A Cypherpunk's Manifesto
2
3by Eric Hughes
4
5Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age. Privacy is not secrecy.
6A private matter is something one doesn't want the whole world to know, but a secret
7matter is something one doesn't want anybody to know. Privacy is the power to selectively
8reveal oneself to the world.
9
10If two parties have some sort of dealings, then each has a memory of their interaction.
11Each party can speak about their own memory of this; how could anyone prevent it? One
12could pass laws against it, but the freedom of speech, even more than privacy, is
13fundamental to an open society; we seek not to restrict any speech at all. If many
14parties speak together in the same forum, each can speak to all the others and aggregate
15together knowledge about individuals and other parties. The power of electronic
16communications has enabled such group speech, and it will not go away merely because
17we might want it to.
18
19Since we desire privacy, we must ensure that each party to a transaction have knowledge
20only of that which is directly necessary for that transaction. Since any information
21can be spoken of, we must ensure that we reveal as little as possible. In most cases
22personal identity is not salient. When I purchase a magazine at a store and hand
23cash to the clerk, there is no need to know who I am. When I ask my electronic mail
24provider to send and receive messages, my provider need not know to whom I am speaking
25or what I am saying or what others are saying to me; my provider only need know how
26to get the message there and how much I owe them in fees. When my identity is revealed
27by the underlying mechanism of the transaction, I have no privacy. I cannot here
28selectively reveal myself; I must always reveal myself.
29
30Therefore, privacy in an open society requires anonymous transaction systems. Until
31now, cash has been the primary such system. An anonymous transaction system is not
32a secret transaction system. An anonymous system empowers individuals to reveal their
33identity when desired and only when desired; this is the essence of privacy.
34
35Privacy in an open society also requires cryptography. If I say something, I want
36it heard only by those for whom I intend it. If the content of my speech is available
37to the world, I have no privacy. To encrypt is to indicate the desire for privacy,
38and to encrypt with weak cryptography is to indicate not too much desire for privacy.
39Furthermore, to reveal one's identity with assurance when the default is anonymity
40requires the cryptographic signature.
41
42We cannot expect governments, corporations, or other large, faceless organizations
43to grant us privacy out of their beneficence. It is to their advantage to speak of
44us, and we should expect that they will speak. To try to prevent their speech is
45to fight against the realities of information. Information does not just want to be
46free, it longs to be free. Information expands to fill the available storage space.
47Information is Rumor's younger, stronger cousin; Information is fleeter of foot,
48has more eyes, knows more, and understands less than Rumor.
49
50We must defend our own privacy if we expect to have any. We must come together and
51create systems which allow anonymous transactions to take place. People have been
52defending their own privacy for centuries with whispers, darkness, envelopes, closed
53doors, secret handshakes, and couriers. The technologies of the past did not allow
54for strong privacy, but electronic technologies do.
55
56We the Cypherpunks are dedicated to building anonymous systems. We are defending
57our privacy with cryptography, with anonymous mail forwarding systems, with digital
58signatures, and with electronic money.
59
60Cypherpunks write code. We know that someone has to write software to defend privacy,
61and since we can't get privacy unless we all do, we're going to write it. We publish
62our code so that our fellow Cypherpunks may practice and play with it. Our code is
63free for all to use, worldwide. We don't much care if you don't approve of the software
64we write. We know that software can't be destroyed and that a widely dispersed system
65can't be shut down.
66
67Cypherpunks deplore regulations on cryptography, for encryption is fundamentally a
68private act. The act of encryption, in fact, removes information from the public
69realm. Even laws against cryptography reach only so far as a nation's border and
70the arm of its violence. Cryptography will ineluctably spread over the whole globe,
71and with it the anonymous transactions systems that it makes possible.
72
73For privacy to be widespread it must be part of a social contract. People must come
74and together deploy these systems for the common good. Privacy only extends so far
75as the cooperation of one's fellows in society. We the Cypherpunks seek your questions
76and your concerns and hope we may engage you so that we do not deceive ourselves. We
77will not, however, be moved out of our course because some may disagree with our
78goals.
79
80The Cypherpunks are actively engaged in making the networks safer for privacy. Let
81us proceed together apace.
82
83Onward.
84
85Eric Hughes <hughes@soda.berkeley.edu>
86
879 March 1993