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Crypto-Anarchist Manifesto
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1994-10-02
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The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto, by Timothy C. May (tcmay@netcom.com)
This document is freely distributable provided it is not modified and
my name remains attached to it.
_________________________________________________________________
A specter is haunting the modern world, the specter of crypto anarchy.
Computer technology is on the verge of providing the ability for
individuals and groups to communicate and interact with each other in
a totally anonymous manner. Two persons may exchange messages, conduct
business, and negotiate electronic contracts without ever knowing the
True Name, or legal identity, of the other. Interactions over networks
will be untraceable, via extensive re-routing of encrypted packets and
tamper-proof boxes which implement cryptographic protocols with nearly
perfect assurance against any tampering. Reputations will be of
central importance, far more important in dealings than even the
credit ratings of today. These developments will alter completely the
nature of government regulation, the ability to tax and control
economic interactions, the ability to keep information secret, and
will even alter the nature of trust and reputation.
The technology for this revolution--and it surely will be both a
social and economic revolution--has existed in theory for the past
decade. The methods are based upon public-key encryption,
zero-knowledge interactive proof systems, and various software
protocols for interaction, authentication, and verification. The focus
has until now been on academic conferences in Europe and the U.S.,
conferences monitored closely by the National Security Agency. But
only recently have computer networks and personal computers attained
sufficient speed to make the ideas practically realizable. And the
next ten years will bring enough additional speed to make the ideas
economically feasible and essentially unstoppable. High-speed
networks, ISDN, tamper-proof boxes, smart cards, satellites, Ku-band
transmitters, multi-MIPS personal computers, and encryption chips now
under development will be some of the enabling technologies.
The State will of course try to slow or halt the spread of this
technology, citing national security concerns, use of the technology
by drug dealers and tax evaders, and fears of societal disintegration.
Many of these concerns will be valid; crypto anarchy will allow
national secrets to be trade freely and will allow illicit and stolen
materials to be traded. An anonymous computerized market will even
make possible abhorrent markets for assassinations and extortion.
Various criminal and foreign elements will be active users of
CryptoNet. But this will not halt the spread of crypto anarchy.
Just as the technology of printing altered and reduced the power of
medieval guilds and the social power structure, so too will
cryptologic methods fundamentally alter the nature of corporations and
of government interference in economic transactions. Combined with
emerging information markets, crypto anarchy will create a liquid
market for any and all material which can be put into words and
pictures. And just as a seemingly minor invention like barbed wire
made possible the fencing-off of vast ranches and farms, thus altering
forever the concepts of land and property rights in the frontier West,
so too will the seemingly minor discovery out of an arcane branch of
mathematics come to be the wire clippers which dismantle the barbed
wire around intellectual property.
Arise, you have nothing to lose but your barbed wire fences!
..........................................................................
Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments.
Higher Power: 2^756839 | PGP Public Key: by arrangement.