THE CRYPTO ANARCHIST MANIFESTO

Timothy C. May
tcmay@netcom.com

(Primary source. Written 1988; distributed at the founding of the Cypherpunks, 1992.)

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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!
