They hoped these technologies would make it possible for people to inhabit “temporary autonomous zones” — the socio-political tactic of creating temporary spaces in the physical world or cyberspace that elude formal systems of control.

FROM CRYPTOGRAPHERS TO CYPHERPUNKS (1990S - 2008):

Public key cryptography, or the use of encryption to secure information against unwanted access by third parties, was discovered in 1973. Research on and access to encryption technologies were highly embargoed.

The Cypherpunks were united by a belief that people should be able to live free from state interference in private matters, and a conviction that this freedom could be achieved through the use of digital encryption technology that allowed people to communicate without being surveilled.

In 2008, a group of developers released a whitepaper on the Cryptographers Mailing List.

In 2009, Cypherpunk Hal Finney became the first person to transact Bitcoin as well as the first maintainer of the Bitcoin software code base.

Digital encryption is a fundamentally political security technology, and a site of struggle for privacy, freedom, and democracy that scholar Linda Monsees has termed “Crypto Politics.”

A PRE-HISTORY OF THE CYPHERPUNKS:

The Cypherpunks Mailing List was a little-known ’90s email server started by three Silicon Valley misfits with interest in digital privacy.