An individual who is a strong believer in anonymity and privacy when using the Internet. Derived from "cipher" and "cyberpunk," cypherpunks often send encrypted messages and employ other privacy measures. Also called "crypto anarchists," cypherpunks are strong believers in cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance (see
DeFi). See
cipher,
cyberpunk,
cryptography,
Tor and
crypto glossary.
A Cypherpunk's Manifesto
Penned by Eric Hughes, programmer and mathematician from UC Berkeley. "Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age. Privacy is not secrecy. A private matter is something one doesn't want the whole world to know, but a secret matter is something one doesn't want anybody to know. Privacy is the power to selectively reveal oneself to the world."