Every revolutionary movement has its heroes or icons and blockchain/cryptocurrency is no different. We may all be familiar with the name of Satoshi Nakamoto, the godfather of Bitcoin who released the original white paper that opened the gates to the treasure house of blockchain and crypto. Ironically we know his name but nobody knows the person behind the name and maybe we never will. But who other than the crypto OGs have ever heard of Tim May? Well this legend passed away this week so let’s take a look at the man who was the original cypherpunk, crypto-anarchist and who is widely credited with inventing most of the cryptographic technology employed within the crypto and blockchain space today.
Wikipedia mentions May’s career as an electronic engineer and senior scientist at the tech giant Intel. However, he is most famous for his 1992 work of founding the Cypherpunks, “a quasi-political pro-cryptography, pro-privacy, anti-surveillance grassroots organization”. This, of course, is what Bitcoin is all about today. We crypto enthusiasts are not just traders or financial investors but more importantly we are revolutionaries in a global cyber revolutionary movement. We are Cypherpunks, Crypto-anarchists, and Tim May is our godfather.
The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto
In his Crypto Anarchist Manifesto presented in Silicon Valley in 1992, May summed up the revolution. He inspired the world of cyberspace to cultivate cryptography and even developed the tools to do so. He basically reminded us of the need for a resistance to government surveillance and for online privacy. This was right at the start of the computer era already. In his manifesto he says that, for anarchists, interactions will be untraceable, reputations will be of central importance and information should be kept secret.
The technology for “public-key encryption, zero-knowledge interactive proof systems, and various software protocols for interaction, authentication, and verification” was already available then but it was only in 1992 that computer speed caught up and allowed implementation. Apparently the NSA used to spy on academic conferences on the subject back then already, so who knows what they are listening to today. Therefore the need for privacy and the invention of coins like Monero, etc.
May knew then already that the invention of cryptography was akin to the invention of the printing press in that it removed the stronghold from the feudal lords of the day and totally empowered the masses. That’s why it’s a social as well as a technological revolution. Blockchcain is the result today, equally revolutionary in more ways than one. Potentially the days of interference in financial or other transactions from globalised corporations and governments are over. When he says in his manifesto “crypto anarchy will create a liquid market for any and all material which can be put into words and pictures” he reminds me very much of steemit.com.
To May the cryptography protocols he recommended were like a “seemingly minor discovery out of an arcane branch of mathematics” but they were like the minor discovery of barbed wire and more particularly wire cutters. It may seem insignificant by itself, but it enabled the fencing of ranches and thus changed the concept of land and property rights in the frontier West. Similarly his cryptographic tools were to become the wire cutters that “dismantle the barbed wire around intellectual property”. These are his own analogies used in his Crypto Anarchist Manifesto. And thus his famous phrase:
“Arise, you have nothing to lose but your barbed wire fences!”
Cypherpunk mailing list
May was not the only one of the original cypherpunks, although he founded the mailing list. Other notable members who were influenced by his work were Adam Back, Wei Dai, Nick Szabo, Hal Finney, J.P. Barlow, and most famously Julian Assange of Wikileaks. Julian really rocked the world with his valuable service to humanity, thanks to the work of Tim May. Hal Finney was, of course, the one to receive the first Bitcoins from Satoshi back in 2009. He has the first ever blockchain-friendly smart phone named after him. It’s available for the first time ever this month. And if you go to Satoshi’s Bitcoin white paper and look at the references listed at the end, you will see the first name is that of Wei Dai. He basically wrote about the original Bitcoin prototype – B-money back in 1998 already. So you can see just how influential May was in this whole blockchain revolution that is driving crypto today.
Admittedly May was a little concerned about the current state of cryptocurrency today and said as much before his passing recently. The excessive fundraising and scams of ICOs and, of course, government intervention in the industry, seemed to him contrary to the original ethic of the cypherpunk and crypto-anarchist philosophy. The KYC (know your customer) and AML (anti money laundering) strict entry requirements, where we have to give our names and credentials to crypto exchanges in order to open an account to buy crypto, were not part of his original strategy for crypto currency. They actually defeat the whole purpose or the very concept of “crypto” which implies hidden or secret.
References:
https://www.ccn.com/influential-cypherpunk-timothy-c-may-dies-at-67/
https://www.activism.net/cypherpunk/crypto-anarchy.html Manifesto
Pic courtesy of https://ibitcoin.ro/cum-isi-aminteste-inceputurile-bitcoin-unul-dintre-primii-cypherpunks/