ABSTRACT

Cypherpunk Ethics explores the moral worldview of the cypherpunks, a movement that advocates the use of strong digital cryptography—or crypto, for short—to defend individual privacy and promote institutional transparency in the digital age.

Focusing on the writings of Timothy May and Julian Assange, two of the most prolific and influential cypherpunks, the book examines two competing paradigms of cypherpunk philosophy—crypto anarchy and crypto justice—and examines the implications of cypherpunk ethics for a range of contemporary moral issues, including surveillance, privacy, whistleblowing, cryptocurrencies, journalism, democracy, censorship, intellectual property, and power.

Rooted in theory but with very real applications, this volume will appeal not only to students and scholars of digital media, communication, journalism, philosophy, political science, critical data studies, sociology, and the history of technology but also to technologists and activists around the world.

chapter 1|11 pages

Introduction

chapter 2|17 pages

Crypto!

chapter 3|13 pages

Cypherpunk Meta-Ethics

chapter 4|17 pages

Cypherpunk Theories of the State

chapter 5|15 pages

Privacy for the Weak

chapter 6|16 pages

Transparency for the Powerful

chapter 7|17 pages

Information Wants to Be Free

chapter 8|7 pages

Conclusion