A Political History of DAOs

The Cypherpunks used their mailing list to document various attempts at building an electronic coin network. This included “e-gold,” in 1996; an anti-spam proof-of-work algorithm called Hashcash by Adam Back; an anonymous proof-of-stake electronic cash network in 1998; and Bit Gold, a proof-of-work string of cryptographic hashes by Nick Szabo in 20... See more

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.

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 interested in harnessing cryptographic tools to build anonymous communication networks and markets without government censorship.

The idea of linking technological principles of decentralization to a sociological theory of political decentralization continues to inform public blockchain communities today.

Engineer Paul Baran made a number of breakthroughs that are relevant to the public, decentralized technologies to this day, including “message blocks” (a component in blockchain technology) and advocacy for private digital networks via cryptography.

“Instead of a hierarchical structure managed by a set of humans interacting in person and controlling property via the legal system, a decentralized organization involves a set of humans interacting with each other according to a protocol specified in code, and enforced on the blockchain,” Buterin wrote in 2014.

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

FROM CRYPTOGRAPHERS TO CYPHERPUNKS (1990S - 2008):