BEFORE THERE WAS #BITCOIN - THERE WAS THE CYPHERPUNK MANIFESTO [some #cypherpunk history] The Cypherpunks formed in the 1980’s and communicated regularly on the Cypherpunks mailing list on a range of topics related to cryptography, economics, and censorship. Eric Hughes, a mathematician and one of the founders of the Cypherpunk movement along with Timothy C. May and John Gilmore, published “A Cypherpunk's Manifesto” in 1993 that captures its ethos. Read a few select quotes from it below👇 As you read these quotes that predate Bitcoins creation by 16 years, comment how you see how this manifesto INFLUENCED BITCOIN. ¶9: “Cypherpunks write code. We know that someone has to write software to defend privacy, and since we can't get privacy unless we all do, we're going to write it. We publish our code so that our fellow Cypherpunks may practice and play with it. Our code is free for all to use, worldwide. We don't much care if you don't approve of the software we write. We know that software can't be destroyed and that a widely dispersed system can't be shut down.” ¶6: “We cannot expect governments, corporations, or other large, faceless organizations to grant us privacy out of their beneficence.” ¶7: “We must defend our own privacy if we expect to have any. We must come together and create systems which allow anonymous transactions to take place. People have been defending their own privacy for centuries with whispers, darkness, envelopes, closed doors, secret handshakes, and couriers. The technologies of the past did not allow for strong privacy, but electronic technologies do.” A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto by Eric Hughes (9 March 1993) https://image.nostr.build/492c32b42c554d51afb28ca795d1c5c156b40dc06e3acba7485508ff7a4feb0b.jpg https://image.nostr.build/b5bdd85a43c5ba07109e5e84a9bce2935127553fcc350f809dabe6b74fa5f65d.jpg