Crypto anarchy
The term crypto-anarchy describes anarchy practiced in cyberspace . Crypto-anarchists see a growing mismatch between state authorization and secrecy on the one hand and state incapacitation and surveillance of the citizen on the other. They are trying to use the possibilities offered by cryptography and computer networks such as the Internet to reverse these relationships; In other words, to publish state secrets, to undermine laws and to provide free cryptographic software with which one can, for example, communicate anonymously or do business.
Origin of the term
In 1988 Timothy C. May distributed his text The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto to like-minded people at a cryptography conference in Santa Barbara and at a hacker conference that same year. In 1992 he read the text at the founding meeting of the Cypherpunk movement. The prefix crypto in the term refers to cryptography and not, as in the term crypto- fascism , to the disguise of an ideology. Timothy May pointed out in his essay The Cyphernomicon that the crypto-anarchy was also intended as a play on words with this use of the term.
Ideological background
Many crypto anarchists are politically close to libertarianism or its more radical varieties such as anarcho-capitalism. Tymothy May writes in The Cyphernomicon : "What will emerge from this [the crypto-anarchy] is uncertain, but I think it will be some kind of anarcho-capitalist market system that I call crypto-anarchy."
Crypto-anarchists advocate free, possibly also black markets ( counter-economics ) and the right to absolute anonymity in cyberspace, relying on the concept of credible deniability . They admit that this provides fertile ground for criminal elements, but argue that cryptography equates with the secrecy of letters , which only totalitarian regimes would not allow .
criticism
In general, the idea of crypto-anarchy can hardly be combined with the elements of anarchism. The aspect of anarchy, in the true sense of the word, only refers to the absence of state power, but at the same time propagates a free, capitalist market economy in the digital space. However, much of anarchist theories also reject capitalism as a form of rule that contradicts anarchy. This misleading use of the term anarchy can also be found in the theory of anarcho-capitalism .
Examples of crypto anarchy
- Tor , I2P or Freenet are examples of networks that allow anonymous and censorship-resistant data exchange.
- Wikileaks is an exposure platform that publishes government secrets under the motto “We open governments” .
- Bitcoin , Litecoin, and Monero are examples of cryptographic currencies that undermine the central banks' currency monopoly.
- Darknet markets are platforms that a. use the Tor network and cryptocurrencies to enable anonymous (and also illegal) trading.
- Defense Distributed is a non-profit organization run by the American Cody Wilson , which has published blueprints for weapons that can be manufactured with 3D printers on the Internet.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cryptoanarchism and Cryptocurrencies . Social Science Research Network. Retrieved November 29, 2017. (English)
- ↑ Wikileaks founder: Julian Assange - The counter-conspirator. sueddeutsche.de, December 3, 2010, accessed on May 14, 2013 .
- ^ A b The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto . Retrieved May 14, 2013.
- ↑ a b The Cyphernomicon . Retrieved May 14, 2013.
- ↑ Hans Jürgen Degen, Jochen Knoblauch: Anarchism. An introduction . 4th edition. Butterfly Verlag, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 3-89657-590-2 , p. 216 .