"The law enforcement folks were stuck longer in the hard-core phase, and still are, even now using Bin Laden to suggest that crypto has GONE TOO FAR, damn it."
— Steven Levy (The WELL - Crypto Discussion, 2001)
#lawenforcement #cryptography #government #terrorism
"Somebody had to be the first one to start banging on the Berlin Wall, with a sledgehammer, in 1989. Somebody had to be the first to walk through. Somebody had to be the first to stand up and say, 'Enough!'"
— Jim Bell (Assassination Politics, 1997)
#resistance #freedom
"Efforts to influence the government (e.g., lobbying and propaganda) are important only in so far as to delay its attempted crackdown long enough for the technology to mature and come into wide use."
— Wei Dai (Cypherpunks mailing list, 1995)
#lobbying
"Cash is also pretty good for privacy because there's no camera that can capture every movement of a dollar bill every time it moves; it just wouldn't work."
— Peter Valkenburgh (Your Secret Right to Cash, 2017)
#cash #privacy #surveillance #technology
"Cryptography rearranges power: it configures who can do what, from what. This makes cryptography an inherently political tool, and it confers on the field an intrinsically moral dimension."
— Phillip Rogaway (The Moral Character of Cryptographic Work, 2015)
#cryptography #politics
"We are on a path today which, if nothing changes, will lead to a world with the potential for greater government power, intrusion, and control. We can change this; these technologies can revolutionize the relationship between individuals and organizations, putting them both on an equal footing for the first time."
— Hal Finney (Protecting privacy with electronic cash, 1993)
#government #freedom
"The State will of course try to slow or halt the spread of this technology, citing national security concerns, use of the technology by drug dealers and tax evaders, and fears of societal disintegration."
— Tim May (The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto, 1988)
#government #regulation
