cypherpunk-research

This repository is essentially for compiling information about Cypherpunks, the history of the movement, and the people/events of note. I intend to use the research here to write a series of articles, and maybe a book if time allows.

Given that a large amount of the notable events and people are related to crypto-currency, a lot of this list will be about Bitcoin/Ethereum/etc. This isn't a "crypto-currency history" list though, it's a broader "cypherpunk history" project. This is why people like Julian Assange, Weev and Paul Calder Le Roux are included. Julian Assange was a 90s cypherpunk, but isn't a bitcoiner (except for Wikileaks accepting it for donations). Weev and Paul Calder Le Roux are people who, to me, represent the beginnings of outcomes predicted by cypherpunk theory. Paul Calder Le Roux in particular represents the dark side of the "specter of crypto anarchy".

I'm going to do my best to avoid giving this list any internal political bias. By this I mean that I will be openly biased in favour of Cypherpunk ideals themselves, but I will try to avoid picking a side in things like the block-size debate. If you feel any of my wording is biased, feel free to send me a PR to correct it, and I will try to evaluate it fairly.

The reason I'm putting this archive on github is to make it easier for others to add sources as a pull request. Whatever I end up doing with the information collated here, this organised list could be useful to the community at large.

HOW TO CONTRIBUTE

Click here if you think I've made an error, or would like to add something to the list.

For updates on this project:

CURENT (FULLY OR PARTIALLY) COMPLETE SECTIONS

Almost all the pages currently are placeholders. The following people/events have content:

People:

Julian Assange, Adam Back, Jim Bell, Bram Cohen, Vitalik Buterin, Hal Finney, Timothy C. May, Satoshi Nakamoto, John Perry Barlow, Ross Ulbricht (Dread Pirate Roberts), Phil Zimmerman, Paul Calder Le Roux, Peter Todd, Cody Wilson, Amir Taaki, Nick Szabo

Events:

Crypto Wars, Phil Zimmerman and PGP, The Rise and Fall of the Silk Road, Bitcoin Scaling Battles, The Altcoin/ICO Bubble and Fourth Bitcoin Bubble, The Bitcoinica Hack

The Cypherpunk Mailing List Archives and FAQ

These seem like appropriate first items to include:

1992-1998 Archives

The Cyphernomicon (Cypherpunk Mailing List FAQ)

Very Notable People (A-Z)

Julian Assange - Founder of Wikileaks, Member of Cypherpunk Mailing List in its heyday
Adam Back - 90s Cypherpunk, Inventor of HashCash, CEO of Blockstream
Jim Bell - 90s Cypherpunk, Crypto-anarchist, Author of Assassination Politics
Vitalik Buterin - Creator of Ethereum
David Chaum - Cryptographer and ideological forefather of the Cypherpunk movement
Bram Cohen - Twitter bio: "Creator of BitTorrent. Now doing cryptocurrency stuff"
Wei Dai - 90s Cypherpunk, Cryptographer, Creator of Bitcoin-precursor B-Money
Whitfield Diffie - Cryptographer, Co-creater of Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange with Martin Hellman, Privacy advocate
Hal Finney - 90s Cypherpunk, Received first Bitcoin transaction (from Satoshi), Strong candidate for Satoshi
David D. Friedman - Son of Milton, Anarcho-Capitalist theorist, "Crypto-Anarchy" draws a lot from his work
John Gilmore - Co-founder of the Cypherpunk Mailing List and the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Ian Grigg - 90s Cypherpunk, Inventor of Ricardian Contracts
Martin Hellman - Cryptographer, Co-creater of Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange with Whitfield Diffie
Eric Hughes - Founding member of the Cypherpunk Mailing List,
Timothy C. May - Founding member of Cypherpunk Mailing List, writer of "The Crypto-Anarchist Manifesto" and the "Cyphernomicon" (mailing list FAQ)
Ralph C. Merkle - Cryptographer, One of the inventors of Public Key Cryptography, Inventor of the cryptographic hash
Satoshi Nakamoto - Pseudonymous Founder of Bitcoin, May be a person or group, Many people put forward as possible candidates, Very probably the alias of a 90s Cypherpunk
John Perry Barlow - 90s Cypherpunk, Author of "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace"
Edward Snowden - Former NSA contractor turned leaker, is clearly inspired by Cypherpunk ideals
Nick Szabo - 90s Cypherpunk, Creator of Bitcoin Precursor BitGold, Prolific writer of many important papers, Strong candidate for Satoshi
Ross Ulbricht (Dread Pirate Roberts) - Founder of the Silk Road dark net market, "The Princess Bride" fan, Currently serving life in prison
Phil Zimmerman - Author of the Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) Public key encryption software

Notable People (A-Z)

Gavin Andresen - Satoshi's successor, Managed the project after his departure until he lost write-access to bitcoin/bitcoin in mid-2016 during a political row, Holds the number 5 spot on the bitcoin/bitcoin contributors list
Jacob Appelbaum - Friend of Julian Assange, Former Spokesman for Wikileaks, Privacy activist, Former Tor Developer, Currently embroiled in sexual misconduct allegations
Andreas Antonopoulos - Bitcoin evangelist, Author of Mastering Bitcoin
Andrew Auernheimer (weev) - White supremacist hacker, father of modern trolling culture, cryptocurrency trader, printer mischief-maker
Clifford Cocks - British Intelligence Cryptographer, Invented Public Key Cryptography but his work was kept classified until 1997
Matt Corallo - Bitcoin Core developer, Holds the number 3 spot on the bitcoin/bitcoin contributors list
Paul Calder Le Roux - Author of E4M disk-encryption software, Suspected author of TrueCrypt, Former criminal empire boss (in a very Crypto-Anarchist sense), DEA informant, Currently in US Custody
Rick Falkvinge - Founder of the Swedish Pirate Party, Political activist, Bitcoiner
Cory Fields - Bitcoin Core developer, Holds the number 4 spot on the bitcoin/bitcoin contributors list
Jeff Garzik - Former Bitcoin Core developer, Now development lead of SegWit2X hard fork proposal
Luke-jr (Difficult to find his real name) - Bitcoin Core developer, Blockstream employee, A figure of controversy to the Big Block faction
Mark Karpeles - Former CEO of the doomed MtGox exchange, Suspected to have caused the Nov 13 bubble with two trading bots, Former Bitcoin Foundation board member
Dave Kleiman - Candidate for Satoshi, Forsensic Computer Investigator, Security researcher, Friend of Craig Wright
Moxie Marlinspike (pseudonym) - Cypherpunk, Anarchist, Computer Security Researcher, Founder of Open Whisper Systems and co-author of the Singal Protocol (now also used by WhatsApp), Sailor
Michael Marquart (Theymos) - Owner of the bitcointalk web forum, Controversial moderator of the /r/bitcoin subreddit due to accusations of heavy-handed moderation and censorship of the online communities he controls
Gregory Maxwell - Bitcoin Core Developer, Blockstream CTO, Controversial figure to the Big Block political faction
Jonas Schnelli - Bitcoin Core developer, Holds the number 6 spot on the bitcoin/bitcoin contributors list
Charlie Shrem - Former CEO of the BitInstant bitcoin exchange, Former Bitcoin Foundation board member, Served a short prison term for supplying bitcoin to a user (BTCKing) who intended to sell them for use on the Silk Road dark web market
Amir Taaki - Anarchist, Created the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal system, Former Bitcoinica employee, Founder of DarkWallet, Former fighter in Rojava, Syria for the Kurdish YPG
Peter Todd - Bitcoin Core developer, Researcher, Vocal critic within the cryptocurrency space
Zhou Tong - Founder of Bitcoinica, Major player in the early Bitcoin community
Wladimir J. Van Der Laan - Bitcoin Core Developer, Holds the number 1 spot on the bitcoin/bitcoin contributors list
Roger Ver - Early Bitcoin whale and investor, "The Bitcoin Jesus", Currently a controvertial figure due to his staunch support for the "Big Block" faction in the scaling debate and for the "Bitcoin Cash" fork-coin, along with Jihan Wu seen as a figurehead of that faction
Eric Voorhees - Former BitInstant employee, Founder of Coinapult, Outspoken pundit, Ideological convictions
Cody Wilson - Post-left Anarchist, Founder of Defence Distributed (which successfully produced designs for a fully 3D printed plastic firearm), Worked with Amir Taaki on DarkWallet as a kind of spokesman/propagandist
Craig Wright - Claimed to be Satoshi, provided fraudulent proof, when called out couldn't/didn't-want-to provide a real one
Jihan Wu - Owns Bitmain and operates AntPool (one of the larger Bitcoin pools), ASIC miner manufacturer, Controversial figure along with Roger Ver as figureheads of the big-block/bitcoin-unlimited/bitcoin-cash political faction within the scaling debate
Peter Wuille - Bitcoin Core Developer, Holds the number 2 spot on the bitcoin/bitcoin contributors list, Blockstream co-founder

Notable Orginisations (A-Z)

Electronic Frontier Foundation
Paralelni Polis - Runs a cypherpunk cafe and coworking/hacker-space in Prague, Czechia called The Institute of Crypto-Anarchy, The first (and maybe only) phisical location to only accept payment in Bitcoin