Every so often at the Ƀent, we like to get back to basics in an attempt to recalibrate and reaffirm the long-term ambitions of the Bitcoin project. However, what we must not forget is that Bitcoin is but a single tool in the arsenal of tools that have built by cypherpunks throughout the decades. If you are at all interested in Bitcoin, it is essential that you take a deeper dive into the history and philosophy of the overarching cypherpunk movement.
2/ "Cypherpunks write code" is almost our mantra. This has come to be a defining statement. Eric Hughes used it to mean that Cypherpunks place more importance in actually changing things, in actually getting working code out, than in merely talking about how things "ought" to be”
— Adam Taché 🎑 (@Adam_Tache) November 7, 2018
4/ "Cypherpunks realize that security is not built in a day and are patient with incremental progress. Cypherpunks don't care if you don't like the software they write. Cypherpunks know that a widely dispersed system can't be shut down." — Eric Hughes
— Adam Taché 🎑 (@Adam_Tache) November 7, 2018
6/ “Many of us see strong crypto as the key enabling technology for a new economic and social system, a system which will develop as cyberspace becomes more important. A system which dispenses with national boundaries, which is based on voluntary (even if anonymous) free trade.”
— Adam Taché 🎑 (@Adam_Tache) November 7, 2018
Luckily for you freaks, our boy Adam Taché put together a behemoth of a thread highlighting some of his favorite quotes from Tim May's THE CYPHERNOMICON, which outlines the philosophies that drove the movement and the tools that had been worked on up to 1994. Again, if you are at all interested in/have gone so far as to buy bitcoin, I believe it is your duty to yourself to read this thread and understand where Bitcoin stands within the context of the greater cypherpunk movement. The ethos that drives these builders is a very no-bullshit, stop talking + theorizing, and start building mindset deadset on giving individuals tools that preserve their sovereignty in a world that is becoming increasingly authoritarian and collectivist.
Cypherpunks have not been coy about their aversion to the State. They overtly oppose the State's persistent encroachment on civil liberties and are actively working to undermine the State's power over the individual by using cryptography as a neutering agent. Pretty heavy shit. If you've only been into Bitcoin up to this point because it presents an asymmetric bet with the possibility of high monetary reward, I suggest you check yourself and do some soul searching to determine whether or not you are down for the cypherpunk cause. Do you want to live in a world where these tools are persistent? Are you ready for radical freedom?
Final thought...
Throw back Thursday.
