Cypherpunks Write Code Complete Documentary

Cypherpunks Write Code - Complete Documentary

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Before the Web: The 1980s Dream of a Free and Borderless Virtual World https://youtu.be/YWh6Yzr12iQ

The first episode in Reason's documentary series on the cypherpunks looks at a clash of ideas over how the internet could lead to a more free society, which was a precursor to the formation of the cypherpunk movement. It took place between the economist and entrepreneur Phil Salin, and the former Intel physicist Timothy C. May, who became known as the father of "crypto anarchy." (Salin died of cancer in 1991 at the age of 41, and May passed away in 2018 at the age of 66.)

Cryptography vs. Big Brother: How Math Became a Weapon Against Tyranny https://youtu.be/n4qonsvSgAg

The second part in Reason's four-part documentary series on this movement, "Cypherpunks Write Code," looks at the political implications of this breakthrough in cryptography.

The cypherpunks saw cryptography as comparable to the crossbow, which had enabled individuals to go up against medieval armies, as mathemetician Chuck Hammill argued in a 1987 paper presented to the Future of Freedom Conference.

When Encryption Was a Crime: The 1990s Battle for Free Speech in Software https://youtu.be/lv8OFSWZkGs

It was the beginning of the "crypto wars"—the legal and public relations battle between the intelligence community and privacy activists over the rights of citizens to use end-to-end encryption. Many of those who were involved in the crypto wars were associated with the "cypherpunk movement," a community of hackers, hobbyists, and computer scientists, which the mathematician Eric Hughes once described as "cryptography activists."

The crypto wars continue to this day: On October 11, 2020, U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr issued a joint statement with officials from six other countries that implored tech companies not to use strong end-to-end encryption in their products so that law enforcement agencies can access the communications of their customers.

Bitcoin and the End of History https://youtu.be/HDKQulqVCQg

"The fall of the Berlin Wall was important to me," said Zooko Wilcox, who was 15 in 1989. It seemed like "the end of history"—a reference to the political scientist Francis Fukuyama's influential 1989 essay—and a time when "national borders would cease being the walls of prisons," he recalled. When Wilcox discovered the internet a few years later, he saw it as "part of this pattern where borders and distance stop being barriers to people."

Wilcox, who today is the founder and CEO of a company that oversees the development of the cryptocurrency Zcash, was an early participant in the "cypherpunks email list." The list, which launched in 1992, became a gathering place for a global community interested in using cryptography to allow individuals to communicate and transact on the internet privately and without interference from a central authority. The cypherpunk movement more broadly would go on to influence WikiLeaks (Julian Assange was a participant on the email list), BitTorrent, Tor, and bitcoin, among other freedom-oriented technologies and initiatives.

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Timestamp: 0:00 Before the Web: The 1980s Dream of a Free and Borderless Virtual World 11:26 Cryptography vs. Big Brother: How Math Became a Weapon Against Tyranny 18:51 When Encryption Was a Crime: The 1990s Battle for Free Speech in Software 28:15 Bitcoin and the End of History