The Cypherpunk Movement
The darknet did not emerge from nothing. Its philosophical and technical foundations were laid by the cypherpunk movement of the early 1990s—a group of activists who believed cryptography was essential to privacy and freedom in the digital age.
"Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age...
We cannot expect governments, corporations, or other large,
faceless organizations to grant us privacy out of their beneficence...
We must defend our own privacy if we expect to have any...
Cypherpunks write code."
Key Developments
PGP Released
Phil Zimmermann releases Pretty Good Privacy, making strong encryption available to the public.
Cypherpunk Mailing List
Eric Hughes, Timothy May, and John Gilmore start the cypherpunks mailing list.
Onion Routing Research
U.S. Naval Research Laboratory begins developing onion routing for secure communications.
Anonymous Remailers
Systems like Mixmaster allow anonymous email, precursors to darknet communication.
Freenet Launched
Ian Clarke releases Freenet, the first major anonymous peer-to-peer network.
Key Figures
Timothy May
Wrote "The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto" predicting anonymous digital currencies and markets.
Eric Hughes
Author of "A Cypherpunks Manifesto," foundational text for privacy advocacy.
Phil Zimmermann
Created PGP, faced federal investigation for "exporting munitions" (encryption).
David Chaum
Pioneered digital cash concepts (DigiCash) that influenced Bitcoin.
The Seeds of Bitcoin
During this era, multiple attempts at digital currency were made:
- DigiCash (1989): David Chaums anonymous digital currency—failed commercially
- E-gold (1996): Gold-backed digital currency—later shut down for money laundering
- B-money (1998): Wei Dais theoretical proposal, cited by Satoshi Nakamoto
- Bit Gold (1998): Nick Szabos proposal, remarkably similar to Bitcoin