Crypto-anarchy

Crypto-anarchy is a political philosophy that uses cryptography and digital networks to protect individual privacy and autonomy from state and institutional control.

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Public-key cryptography: A cryptographic system that uses paired public and private keys for encryption and digital signatures. It enables communication and authentication without requiring a trusted central authority.
Timothy C. May: An American computer engineer and political writer associated with the early cypherpunk movement. His writings gave crypto-anarchy an early and influential political formulation.
Privacy: The condition of having control over access to personal information, spaces, or communications. Crypto-anarchy treats privacy as a basis for personal freedom rather than a privilege granted by authorities.
Digital authoritarianism: The use of digital technologies by governments to monitor, influence, or control populations. It represents the kind of state power crypto-anarchists seek to limit.
Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer digital currency whose transactions are recorded on a public blockchain. It made censorship-resistant digital money a widely visible practical project.
End-to-end encryption: Encryption that allows only the communicating endpoints to read a message, excluding intermediaries. It limits what network operators and governments can learn from private communications.
The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto: A 1988 essay by Timothy C. May advocating cryptography as a means to reshape political and economic power. It states the movement's foundational claim that private digital exchange could weaken state control.
Decentralization: The distribution of authority, decision-making, or infrastructure across multiple independent participants. Dispersed systems reduce dependence on institutions that can monitor or restrict activity.
Surveillance capitalism: An economic system that monetizes the collection and analysis of personal data for prediction and influence. It shows how privacy threats can arise from corporations as well as governments.
WikiLeaks: A media organization that publishes leaked documents, often concerning government or corporate activity. Its history illustrates how encryption and online publishing can challenge institutional secrecy.