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0/ You’ve probably heard people yapping about Cypherpunk, but what exactly is it and what is Ethereum’s specific brand of Cypherpunk? A guest thread by post_polar_

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1/ When I’m teaching, I condense Ethereum Cypherpunk into four key values: decentralization, permissionlessness, censorship resistance and credible neutrality.

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2/ Decentralisation means power should be distributed as widely as possible among all Ethereum’s stakeholders.

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3/ Permissionlessness means you shouldn’t need anyone’s permission to use Ethereum (and is also fun to say).

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4/ Censorship resistance means all transactions should be treated equally on Ethereum, no judgement.

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5/ And credible neutrality means Ethereum’s design - and ideally what is built on Ethereum - shouldn’t favour anyone in particular—it should be fair. Credible neutrality is a unique contribution of Ethereum culture, introduced by @vitalik.eth: https://nakamoto.com/credible-neutrality/

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6/ BUT you will be shocked to hear different people define Ethereum’s core Cypherpunk values in different ways.

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7/ In pcaversaccio’s seminal ‘The Ethereum Cypherpunk Manifesto’ we find privacy, security, and censorship resistance listed as the core principles and these exist to support ‘immutability, decentralised governance, open access, global collaboration, and continuous evolution’: https://hackmd.io/@pcaversaccio/the-ethereum-cypherpunk-manifesto

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8/ In Vitalik’s ‘Make Ethereum Cypherpunk Again’, he gives us an expansive list, adding values like auditability and a cooperative mindset: https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2023/12/28/cypherpunk.html

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9/ These different interpretations of Cypherpunk are a normal outcome in decentralised communities. Because there is no top-down cultural arbiter, not even Vitalik, people tend to place the emphasis in different places, although you will note recurring themes.

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10/ Cypherpunk has a rich history and you can read many academic articles about it. For example, kelsiemvn has written an intellectual history of Crypto movements where Cypherpunk appears heavily: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/citedby/10.1080/24701475.2023.2183643

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11/ @annbrody7 is an Ethereum ethnographer who analysed the role of Cypherpunk (and other themes) in the first social science academic article that focused exclusively on Ethereum: https://cjc.utppublishing.com/doi/10.22230/cjc.2021v46n3a3701

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12/ Another excellent Crypto academic worth checking out is jayapapaya who portrays the Cypherpunk mindset as that of the Hacker-Engineer, dedicated to the dream of a decentralised Web: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13563467.2020.1806223

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13/ These are paywalled articles but as a tip if you email academics they will send you their articles!

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