This is the faq that Timothy C May wrote in 1996 for the cypherpunk mailing list. It is an excellent, though lengthy read, and probably the most perfect faq ever written.
Here are some selections but there is so much in the cyphernomicon, you might as well just read the whole darn thing:
2.4.6. "Who are the Cypherpunks?"
- A mix of about 500-700
+ Can find out who by sending message to majordomo@toad.com
with the message body text "who cypherpunks" (no quotes, of
course).
- Is this a privacy flaw? Maybe. 2.4.14. "Why is there sometimes disdain for the enthusiasm and
proposals of newcomers?"
- None of us is perfect, so we sometimes are impatient with
newcomers. Also, the comments seen tend to be issues of
disagreement--as in all lists and newsgroups (agreement is
so boring).
- But many newcomers also have failed to do the basic reading
that many of us did literally _years_ before joining this
list. Cryptology is a fairly technical subject, and one can
no more jump in and expect to be taken seriously without
any preparation than in any other technical field.
- Finally, many of us have answered the questions of
newcomers too many times to be enthusiastic about it
anymore. Familiarity breeds contempt. 2.4.17. "What does "Cypherpunks write code' mean?"
- a clarifying statement, not an imperative
- technology and concrete solutions over bickering and
chatter
- if you don't write code, fine. Not everyone does (in fact,
probably less than 10% of the list writes serious code, and
less than 5% writes crypto or security software 8.3. Anonymity and Digital Pseudonyms
8.3.1. Why is anonymity so important?
- It allows escape from past, an often-essential element of
straighening out (an important function of the Western
frontier, the French Foreign Legion, etc., and something we
are losing as the dossiers travel with us wherever we go)
- It allows new and diverse types of opinions, as noted below
- More basically, anonymity is important because identity is
not as important as has been made out in our dossier
society. To wit, if Alice wishes to remain anonymous or
pseudonymous to Bob, Bob cannot "demand" that she provide
here "real" name. It's a matter of negotiation between
them. (Identity is not free...it is a credential like any
other and cannot be demanded, only negotiated.) 8.6.5. "Why are remailers needed?"
+ Hal Finney summarized the reasons nicely in an answer back
in early 1993.
- "There are several different advantages provided by
anonymous remailers. One of the simplest and least
controversial would be to defeat traffic analysis on
ordinary email.....Two people who wish to communicate
privately can use PGP or some other encryption system to
hide the content of their messages. But the fact that
they are communicating with each other is still visible
to many people: sysops at their sites and possibly at
intervening sites, as well as various net snoopers. It
would be natural for them to desire an additional amount
of privacy which would disguise who they were
communicating with as well as what they were saying.
"Anonymous remailers make this possible. By forwarding
mail between themselves through remailers, while still
identifying themselves in the (encrypted) message
contents, they have even more communications privacy than
with simple encryption.
"(The Cypherpunk vision includes a world in which
literally hundreds or thousands of such remailers
operate. Mail could be bounced through dozens of these
services, mixing in with tens of thousands of other
messages, re-encrypted at each step of the way. This
should make traffic analysis virtually impossible. By
sending periodic dummy messages which just get swallowed
up at some step, people can even disguise _when_ they are
communicating.)" [Hal Finney, 1993-02-23]
"The more controversial vision associated with anonymous
remailers is expressed in such science fiction stories as
"True Names", by Vernor
Vinge, or "Ender's Game", by Orson Scott Card. These
depict worlds in which computer networks are in
widespread use, but in which many people choose to
participate through pseudonyms. In this way they can
make unpopular arguments or participate in frowned-upon
transactions without their activities being linked to
their true identities. It also allows people to develop
reputations based on the quality of their ideas, rather
than their job, wealth, age, or status." [Hal Finney,
1993-02-23] 10.3.1. "Is this stuff legal or illegal?"
- Certainly the _talking_ about it is mostly legal, at least
in the U.S. and at the time of this writing. In other
countries, you prison term may vary.
+ The actions resulting from crypto, and crypto anarchy, may
well be illegal. Such is often the case when technology is
applied without any particular regard for what the laws say
is permitted. (Pandora's Box and all that.)
- Cypherpunks really don't care much about such ephemera as
the "laws" of some geographic region. Cypherpunks make
their own laws.
+ There are two broad ways of getting things done:
- First, looking at the law and regulations and finding
ways to exploit them. This is the tack favored by
lawyers, of whic$are many in this country.
- Second, "just do it." In areas where the law hasn't
caught up, this can mean unconstrained technological
developement. Good examples are the computer and chip
business, where issues of legality rarely arose (except
in the usual areas of contract enforcement, etc.). More
recently the chip business has discovered lawyering, with
a vengeance.
- In other areas, where the law is centrally involved,
"just do it" can mean many technical violations of the
law. Examples: personal service jobs (maids and
babysitters), contracting jobs without licenses,
permissions, etc., and so on. Often these are "illegal
markets," putatively.
- And bear in mind that the legal system can be used to
hassle people, to pressure them to "plead out" to some
charges, to back off, etc. (In the firearms business, the
pressures and threats are also used to cause some
manufacturers, like Ruger, to back off on a radical pro-gun
stance, so as to be granted favors and milder treatment.
Pressure on crypto-producing companies are probably very
similar. Play ball, or we'll run you over in the parking
lot.)12.10.7. Scenario for deployment of digital cash
- Eric Hughes has spent time looking into this. Too many
issues to go into here, but he had this interesting
scenario, repeated almost in toto here:
- "It's very unlikely that a USA bank will be the one to
deploy anonymous digital dollars first. It's much more
likely that the first dollar digital cash will be issued
overseas, possibly London. By the same token, the non-
dollar regulation on banks in this country is not the same
as the dollar regulation, so it's quite possible that the
New York banks may be the first issuers of digital cash, in
pounds sterling, say.
"There will be two stages in actually deploying digital
cash. By digital cash, here, I mean a retail phenomenon,
available anybody. The first will be to digitize money, and
the second will be to anonymize it. Efforts are already
well underway to make more-or-less secure digital funds
transfers with reasonably low transaction fees (not
transaction costs, which are much more than just fees).
These efforts, as long as they retain some traceability,
will almost certainly succeed first in the marketplace,
because (and this is vital) the regulatory environment
against anonymity is not compromised.
"Once, however, money has been digitized, one of the
services available for purchase can be the anonymous
transfer of funds. I expect that the first digitization of
money won't be fully fungible. For example, if you allow
me to take money out of your checking account by automatic
debit, there is risk that the money won't be there when I
ask for it. Therefore that kind of money won't be
completely fungible, because money authorized from one
person won't be completely identical with money from
another. It may be a risk issue, it may be a timeliness
issue, it may be a fee issue; I don't know, but it's
unlikely to be perfect.
"Now, as the characteristic size of a business decreases,
the relative costs of dealing with whatever imperfection
there is will be greater. To wit, the small player will
still have some problem getting paid, although certainly
less than now. Digital cash solves many of these problems.
The clearing is immediate and final (no transaction
reversals). The number of entities to deal with is greatly
reduced, hopefully to one. The need and risk and cost of
accounts receivables is eliminated. It's anonymous. There
will be services which will desire these advantages, enough
to support a digital cash infrastructure. [Eric Hughes,
Cypherpunks list, 1994-08-03]
12.15.6. "Will people accept the banning of cash?"
- There was a time when I would've said Americans, at least,
would've rejected such a thing. Too many memories of
"Papieren, bitte. Macht schnell!" But I now think most
Americans (and Europeans) are so used to producing
documents for every transaction, and so used to using VISA
cards and ATM cards at gas stations, supermarkets, and even
at flea markets, that they'll willingly--even eagerly--
adopt such a system.