"Governments see their powers eroded by these technologies, and are taking various well-known steps to try to limit the use of strong crypto by their subjects."

— Tim May (Crypto Anarchy and Virtual Communities, 1994)

#government #cryptography #regulation

"When Satoshi announced Bitcoin on the cryptography mailing list, he got a skeptical reception at best. Cryptographers have seen too many grand schemes by clueless noobs."

— Hal Finney (BitcoinTalk Forum, 2013)

#bitcoin #satoshi #history

"Intelligence agencies keep things secret because they often violate the rule of law or of good behavior."

— Julian Assange (Forbes, 2010)

#intelligence #secrecy #law #government

"I'd like to think that decades from now, people will look back and see this time as the dawning of a new era of individual empowerment and freedom."

— Hal Finney (BitcoinTalk Forum, 2013)

#bitcoin #freedom

"But there is another solution, one advocated forcefully by computer scientist David Chaum. Rather than relying on new laws and more government, Chaum looks to technical solutions. And these solutions rely on the ancient science devoted to keeping information confidential: cryptography."

— Hal Finney (Protecting privacy with electronic cash, 1993)

#cryptography #privacy #government

"By its very nature, it favors the bright (who can put it to use) over the dull (who cannot). It favors the adaptable (who are quick to see the merit of the new) over the sluggish (who cling to time-tested ways). And what two better words are there to describe government bureaucracy than 'dull' and 'sluggish'?"

— Chuck Hammill (From Crossbows To Cryptography: Techno-Thwarting The State, 1987)

#government #freedom

"We hope this will inspire others to work in this fascinating area in which participation has been discouraged in the recent past by a nearly total government monopoly."

— Whitfield Diffie and Martin E. Hellman (New Directions in Cryptography, 1976)

#cryptography #government #monopoly #freedom

"I had this view of cryptography in which the critical value of cryptography was that you didn't have to trust other people."

— Whitfield Diffie (ITAS Interview, 1992)

#cryptography #trust #autonomy

"In a world without cash (a bearer and peer-to-peer form of money) all transactions must be necessarily intermediated by financial institutions. Intermediated transactions are by their nature subject to surveillance and control."

— Jerry Brito (The Case for Electronic Cash, 2019)

#cash #surveillance #control #intermediation

"Because cash is permissionless, it is censorship resistant."

— Jerry Brito (The Case for Electronic Cash, 2019)

#cash #censorship #permissionless #freedom

"Technology has let the genie out of the bottle. Crypto anarchy is liberating individuals from coercion by their physical neighbors—who cannot know who they are on the Net—and from governments."

— Tim May (Crypto Anarchy and Virtual Communities, 1994)

#cryptoanarchy #freedom #government

"Proprietary software is an injustice. It denies users freedom and keeps them divided and helpless."

— Richard Stallman (Free Software, Free Society, 2002)

#proprietarysoftware #freedom