The Domestication of Cryptocurrency
In the stupid underground, cryptocurrency remains subversive — even as it’s co-opted by the usual suspects
During the internet’s nascent life, a lot of researchers, early adopters, and enthusiasts recognized that the technology would pose serious problems for acting anonymously online. The very nature of internet infrastructure is problematic for anonymity seekers. Our data always travels through public channels. In order to arrive at its destination, our data must be marked with that destination. Similarly, if we hope to receive a reply, we must make our own address public. As Eric Hughes wrote back in 1993 in A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto:
In most cases personal identity is not salient. When I purchase a magazine at a store and hand cash to the clerk, there is no need to know who I am. When I ask my electronic mail provider to send and receive messages, my provider need not know to whom I am speaking or what I am saying […] When my identity is revealed by the underlying mechanism of the transaction, I have no privacy. I cannot here selectively reveal myself; I must always reveal myself.
The cypherpunks were born out of love for what the internet promised to become and a deep concern for what the internet might mean for personal privacy.
