"By its very nature, it favors the bright (who can put it to use) over the dull (who cannot). It favors the adaptable (who are quick to see the merit of the new) over the sluggish (who cling to time-tested ways). And what two better words are there to describe government bureaucracy than 'dull' and 'sluggish'?"
— Chuck Hammill (From Crossbows To Cryptography: Techno-Thwarting The State, 1987)
#government #freedom
"We hope this will inspire others to work in this fascinating area in which participation has been discouraged in the recent past by a nearly total government monopoly."
— Whitfield Diffie and Martin E. Hellman (New Directions in Cryptography, 1976)
#cryptography #government #monopoly #freedom
"I had this view of cryptography in which the critical value of cryptography was that you didn't have to trust other people."
— Whitfield Diffie (ITAS Interview, 1992)
#cryptography #trust #autonomy
"In a world without cash (a bearer and peer-to-peer form of money) all transactions must be necessarily intermediated by financial institutions. Intermediated transactions are by their nature subject to surveillance and control."
— Jerry Brito (The Case for Electronic Cash, 2019)
#cash #surveillance #control #intermediation
"Because cash is permissionless, it is censorship resistant."
— Jerry Brito (The Case for Electronic Cash, 2019)
#cash #censorship #permissionless #freedom
"Technology has let the genie out of the bottle. Crypto anarchy is liberating individuals from coercion by their physical neighbors—who cannot know who they are on the Net—and from governments."
— Tim May (Crypto Anarchy and Virtual Communities, 1994)
#cryptoanarchy #freedom #government
"Proprietary software is an injustice. It denies users freedom and keeps them divided and helpless."
— Richard Stallman (Free Software, Free Society, 2002)
#proprietarysoftware #freedom
"Digital pseudonyms, the creation of persistent network personas that cannot be forged by others and yet which are unlinkable to the 'true names' of their owners, are finding major uses in ensuring free speech, in allowing controversial opinions to be aired, and in providing for economic transactions that cannot be blocked by local governments."
— Tim May (Crypto Anarchy and Virtual Communities, 1994)
#freespeech #anonymity #economics
"The keyboard is the great equalizer — better than the Glock .45."
— St. Jude (Jude Milhon) (Modem Grrrl (Wired), 1995)
#technology #empowerment #equality #defense
"Free software is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of 'free' as in 'free speech,' not as in 'free beer.'"
— Richard Stallman (GNU Project, 1985)
#freesoftware #liberty #opensource
