Cypherpunk is a subculture within cyberpunk that advocates for the use of cryptography to protect personal information and effect political change. It began in the late 1980s and has since led to the creation of advocacy groups and software for online anonymity. Cypherpunks are well-educated and diverse in income, ethnicity, and social class.
Many people are familiar with the hacker or cyberpunk subculture that arose from the creation of the Internet and the advancement of the information age. Less well known are some of the smaller groups that make up the larger cyberpunk subculture, such as cypherpunk, which combines the term “cipher,” to indicate an interest in ciphers and cryptography, with punk, to indicate a certain disdain for the authority. “Cypherpunk” can be used interchangeably to refer to individual activists or a general philosophy. First, cypherpunks advocate the use of cryptography as a tool for protecting groups and individuals in a world where personal information has become increasingly accessible. Cypherpunks also promote the use of technology and cryptography as a means of effecting political change.
The cypherpunk movement began as a loosely connected group in the late 1980s and early 1990s that communicated primarily through online mailing lists. It has been heavily influenced by the hacker subculture, growing concern for personal civil rights, and the disturbing implications of government monitoring. This made the cypherpunk movement one of the first to recognize the growing online privacy problem. To address these concerns, cypherpunks have placed great emphasis on implementing technology that supports their agenda, such as private encryption for secure anonymous networks, email, web browsing, and financial transactions.
Since its inception, the cypherpunk movement has led to the creation of a number of active advocacy groups promoting online privacy. Cypherpunks have also been instrumental in the creation and dispersal of software commonly used to provide online anonymity, such as anonymous remailers and peer-to-peer systems. They have engaged heavily in the highly political debates and legal issues surrounding the use of cryptography. This has had a long-standing influence on the export and domestic use of cryptography. Cypherpunks have participated individually and as a group in lawsuits, civil disobedience, think tanks, public debates, and, in some cases, criminal activity.
The cypherpunk movement is often viewed as a subset of the larger cyberpunk culture. Cypherpunks may also be referred to as coderpunks, although this term seems to imply a lesser degree of interest in the movement’s political and social agenda. They are usually well educated and proficient in the use of cryptography and computer programming. Despite the implications of the term “punk,” cypherpunks span a wide range of incomes, ethnicities, and social classes.
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