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The cypherpunks comprise an informal group of people interested in privacy and cryptography who originally communicated through the cypherpunks mailing list. Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively Cryptography (or cryptology; from Greek grc κρυπτός kryptos, "hidden secret" and grc γράφω gráphō, "I write" A mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients The aim of the group was to achieve privacy and security through proactive use of cryptography. Events such as the GURPS Cyberpunk raid lent weight to the idea that private individuals needed to take steps themselves to protect their privacy. GURPS Cyberpunk is a genre toolkit for Cyberpunk -themed Role-playing games set in a near-future Dystopia, such as that In its heyday, the list discussed the public policy issues related to cryptography, as well as more practical nuts-and-bolts mathematical, computational, technological, and cryptographic matters themselves.

A coderpunks list, open by invitation only, existed for a time. Coderpunks took up more technical matters and had less discussion of public policy implications.

The term cypherpunk, derived from cipher and punk, was coined by Jude Milhon as a pun to describe cyberpunks who used cryptography. In Cryptography, a cipher (or cypher) is an Algorithm for performing Encryption and Decryption &mdash a series of well-defined steps Punk ideologies are a group of varied social and political beliefs associated with the Punk subculture. Jude Milhon ( March 12, 1939 &ndash July 19, 2003) in Anderson Indiana, best known by her Pseudonym St Cyberpunk is a Science fiction genre noted for its focus on " High tech and low life. [1] In November 2006, the word was proposed for inclusion in the Oxford English Dictionary[2]. The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED) published by the Oxford University Press (OUP is a comprehensive Dictionary of the English The Cypherpunks included several notable computer industry figures.

Many cypherpunks are anarcho-capitalists. Anarcho-capitalism (also known as Free-market anarchism) is an individualist anarchist Political philosophy that advocates the elimination [3]

Contents

History

The mailing list's best days have been behind it for some time, having peaked around 1997. A number of current systems in use trace their roots to this time, including Pretty Good Privacy, /dev/random in the Linux kernel (the actual code has been completely reimplemented several times since then) and today's anonymous remailers. Pretty Good Privacy (PGP is a Computer program that provides Cryptographic Privacy and Authentication. In Unix-like Operating systems /dev/random is a Special file that serves as a true Random number generator or as a Pseudorandom number generator Linux is an operating system kernel used by a family of Unix-like Operating systems These are popularly termed Linux operating systems and An anonymous remailer is a server computer which receives messages with embedded instructions on where to send them next and which forwards them without revealing where

The cypherpunk mailing list was originally hosted on toad. com, but after a falling out with the sysop over moderation, the list was migrated to several cross-linked mail-servers in what was called the "distributed mailing list". [4][5] Toad. com continued to run with the existing subscriber list, those that didn't unsubscribe, and was mirrored on the new distributed mailing list, but messages from the distributed list didn't appear on toad. com. [6] As the list faded in popularity, so too did it fade in the number of cross-linked subscription nodes. As of 2007, the only remaining node is at al-qaeda. net, and list traffic is at best intermittent and even then, sparse.

For a time, the cypherpunks mailing list was a popular tool with mailbombers[7], who would subscribe a victim to the mailing list. This precipitated the mailing list sysop(s) to institute a reply to subscribe system. It is important to note that approximately two hundred messages a day was typical for the mailing list, divided between personal arguments and attacks, political discussion, technical discussion, and early spam[8][9].

Other uses

Cypherpunk, cypherpunks or cpunks are also occasionally used as a username and password on websites which require registration, especially if the user does not intend to return or does not wish to reveal information about himself. The account is left for later users. As of 2007, username "cypherpunks01" with password "cypherpunks01" seems to be one of the few of these "public use accounts" which seems to be widely available.

Citations

  1. ^ Re: Jude Milhon in WIRED
  2. ^ ResourceShelf » Oxford English Dictionary Updates Some Entries & Adds New Words; Bada-Bing, Cypherpunk, and Wi-Fi Now in the OED
  3. ^ Bennett, James C. 2007. The Anglosphere Challenge: Why the English-Speaking Nations Will Lead. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 138.
  4. ^ Re: Sandy and the Doc
  5. ^ Newgroup - distributed mailing list on the way?
  6. ^ Switching to full traffic mode
  7. ^ Re: POST: The Frightening Dangers of Moderation
  8. ^ Re: Re: Add To Your Monthly Income!!
  9. ^ Cypherpunks Date Index for 1997 04

Some well known cypherpunks

See also

External links

Dictionary

cypherpunk

-noun

  1. (computing) A person with an interest in encryption and privacy, especially one who uses encrypted email
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