Crypto-Anarchism
What it is and why it matters
Crypto‐anarchism is a philosophy whose advocates think technology can assist them in creating communities based on consent rather than coercion. Crypto‐anarchists wish to be free from state interference but prefer technical means over political means in pursuing their aims. In this way, crypto‐anarchism is both a way of seeing and a way of being.
The crypto‐anarchist way of seeing is a general skepticism of all claims to political authority. Indeed, anarchists in the liberal tradition are not only skeptical of political authority, but they think any right conception of justice ought to originate in consent. In other words, one should be able to choose one’s governance system. Such a philosophy lies in stark contrast to conceptions that evoke a hypothetical social contract or a General Will. To think like an anarchist, then, is to advocate for consent‐based governance systems and to reject compulsion‐based systems.
Despite widespread sentimental attachments to our countries and their governments, anarchists think states are unjustifiable. All systems of compulsion and subordination are indefensible unless the individual gives prior consent to the system. Yet most anarchists are under no illusions when it comes to making their case to the powerful. Anarchists understand that political authorities are not likely to tolerate any form of peaceful association that challenges their power. And those who benefit from state transfers are not likely to withdraw their support from entities promising those transfers. So, both state proxies and their supplicants have every incentive to fight for incumbency.
Therefore, the anarchist thinks political authority exists, as any other phenomenon of nature exists, like hurricanes or malaria. To acknowledge this reality gives rise to the crypto‐anarchist way of being. That is, those who do not accept political authority nevertheless have to navigate life with it as a social fact. So, to be a crypto‐anarchist is to be comfortable with some degree of civil disobedience — all while creating and participating in parallel, consent‐based systems. Many of those systems will be designed to challenge or route around political authorities.
Crypto‐anarchists call this “underthrow.”
The prefix “crypto” makes the moniker seem somewhat occult. Indeed, there is secrecy in the conception; otherwise, how will the anarchist evade the state’s attention and control? The other connotation of “crypto” is technical. This comes from cryptography, which is a set of tools fashioned by computer scientists and mathematicians. But, of course, these technologies have always been rooted in the human desire for privacy or free association. In this way, innovators in cryptography design systems that let two or more parties engage in unmolested and unmonitored communication, collaboration, or exchange. Enabling, protecting, and encouraging these forms of association is the goal of crypto‐anarchists.
THE HISTORY OF CRYPTO‐ANARCHISM
Crypto‐anarchism has a long and storied history. Even the secret societies that formed under tyrants in the days before mass communication were antecedents. For the sake of brevity, though, let’s situate the genesis of modern crypto‐anarchism at the dawn of the information age. In this period, humanity began to envision the breakthrough via a convergence of new tools and rules (technology and institutions).
Timothy C. May set out this vision in his 1988 manifesto:
Just as the technology of printing altered and reduced the power of medieval guilds and the social power structure, so too will cryptologic methods fundamentally alter the nature of corporations and of government interference in economic transactions. Combined with emerging information markets, crypto anarchy will create a liquid market for any and all material which can be put into words and pictures.
May anticipated everything from black markets to bitcoin. But it is in the latter that the true potential for crypto‐anarchy began to gestate in the minds of millions and not just a small group of cypherpunks.
In 2009 May’s vision manifested when a person or group pseudonymously named Satoshi Nakamoto published the bitcoin white paper. To crypto‐anarchists, the ramifications of this peer‐to‐peer digital cash system rivaled the printing press in significance. However, the bitcoin network is more than just an electronic cash system. It contains the germs of ideas currently being propagated in a dazzling, evolutionary landscape of tokens, smart contracts, distributed ledgers, and governance systems. Most importantly, bitcoin unleashed the idea that people could peacefully work together to construct new social operating systems. Moreover, unlike nation‐states, people can join or exit those networks at will, provided they honor any agreements they make.
As of this writing, thousands of cryptocurrency tokens represent various nascent systems and their properties. Many of these systems demonstrate the power of disintermediation, or the removal of middlemen. Token ecosystems are a wonderland for the crypto‐anarchist. They represent the potential for people to self‐organize according to different ideas of the good. The “crypto” space represents the promise and possibility of transition into more consent‐based systems of governance, which we call rules without rulers.
All of these technologies threaten to make obsolete powerful corporate and government hierarchies. Indeed, the very structures that stand to be toppled are reacting with predictable hostility.
