All concepts
Concept
Ideology
Crypto-Anarchy
First appeared Jan 1988
Why it matters
It is the political vision Bitcoin partially realizes: money whose rules no government writes. Understanding crypto-anarchy is understanding why the cypherpunks wanted Bitcoin at all.
What it is
Tim May's idea — set out in the 1988 Crypto Anarchist Manifesto — that strong cryptography would let people transact and associate beyond the reach of states, dissolving the power of surveillance and borders over money and speech.