Crypto-History

I like to take a step back sometimes, see things from a bird's eye view, and offer another perspective than the omnipresent deep-dives into specific cryptocurrencies. This is important, I think, to keep remembering why this whole crypto-adventure was started in the first place, and to not lose sight of the goals we've set for ourselves and the world.

Usually when we think about the birth of cryptocurrencies, we remember the 2008 whitepaper by Satoshi Nakamoto. This was the birth of bitcoin (BTC), the first peer-to-peer cryptographic currency that was designed in reaction to the 2008 financial meltdown, and as a protest against the centralized power vested in the Central Banks and governments that were in large part responsible for that crisis, and many other crises before that. And this is a completely rational and justified starting-point for the history of cryptocurrencies. However, Satoshi Nakamoto and the bitcoin whitepaper didn't just suddenly arrive on the scene; they were the end-point, the realization of a decades old dream of the cypherpunk community. They were advocates of a political ideology focusing on the protection of privacy, economic freedom and political freedom, an ideal they practiced with the use of cryptographic software to ensure security and confidentiality while sending and receiving information over computer networks.

I doubt that most of the users of and investors in cryptocurrencies have heard of a man called Timothy C. May, better known as Tim May. He died in 2018 and was the founder of the crypto-anarchist movement, after having had a career as a senior scientist at Intel. He retired from Intel in 1986 and published his basic ideas about crypto-anarchism in his 1988 "Crypto Anarchist Manifesto." In this manifesto he basically predicted the arrival of bitcoin, NFTs even, and he also predicted what the critics and governments would say about them. Here are some snippets from this visionary pamphlet:

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. [...] 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 methods are based upon public-key encryption, zeroknowledge interactive proof systems, and various software protocols for interaction, authentication, and verification. [...] 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. [...] Crypto anarchy will create a liquid market for any and all material which can be put into words and pictures.
_{source: The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto}

The Cypherpunks have existed since September, 1992, and stuck with the principles laid out in Tim May's manifesto. They published their own manifesto called "THE CYPHERNOMICON", expanding on the original, from which comes this quote:

Some of us believe various forms of strong cryptography will cause the power of the state to decline, perhaps even collapse fairly abruptly. We believe the expansion into cyberspace, with secure communications, digital money, anonymity and pseudonymity, and other crypto-mediated interactions, will profoundly change the nature of economies and social interactions. Governments will have a hard time collecting taxes, regulating the behavior of individuals and corporations (small ones at least), and generally coercing folks when it can't even tell what continent folks are on!
_{source: Satoshi Nakamoto Institute}

There you have it; two texts from 1988 and 1992 predicting the crypto-revolution we're now experiencing. Although the Cypherpunks and Tim May were extremely optimistic about the crypto-anarchist revolution taking place in a decade or two, when Tim May died in 2018 he was still waiting for it to happen. Instead he started hearing about Central Banks planning to create their own blockchain-based cryptocurrencies, the feared CBDCs... Anyway, this post is just an attempt to place Satoshi Nakamoto's whitepaper in a broader historical perspective, to share with you some of its deeper roots, and to remind ourselves about the goals and ideals at its base. If you read Tim May's manifesto, you'll see that he admitted that some of the criticisms leveled at cryptocurrencies are legitimate. Regard this quote for example: "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."

What this means, in my opinion, is that we're not there yet. "Not your key, not your money," is a slogan often used in our freedom-loving circles. But this also entails the kind of freedom I'm not a proponent of; the freedom to scam unsuspecting victims out of their money, the freedom to go broke and have no safety-net or social system to take care of you. Completely unregulated freedom may sound attractive at first, but this also results in the reality we have today, where the majority of tokens and NFTs are worthless, useless or, worse, intentional scams. Tim May knew this would happen, and we know it did happen. So what will we do about it? I believe we can make it work, as we've also seen the birth of communities such as Steemit, Hive and Loop Finance, and decentralized exchanges powered by collective pooling of funds. That's the direction in which we should evolve, I believe; personal responsibility and freedom, but tied to collective action and trust. Just some food for thought...

There's a lot more to say about May and the Cypherpunks, so I've linked below a documentary about their birth, motivations and the fight against government overreach. Please watch it, as it's highly interesting and a good starting point for understanding the complete digital history leading up to the birth of bitcoin.

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