How cryptography is a key weapon in the fight against empire states

What began as a means of retaining individual freedom can now be used by smaller states to fend off the ambitions of larger ones.

Cryptography as a key weapon

The original cypherpunks were mostly Californian libertarians. I was from a different tradition but we all sought to protect individual freedom from state tyranny. Cryptography was our secret weapon. It has been forgotten how subversive this was. Cryptography was then the exclusive property of states, for use in their various wars. By writing our own software and disseminating it far and wide we liberated cryptography, democratised it and spread it through the frontiers of the new internet.

How cryptography is a key weapon in the fight against empire states | The Guardian