Cryptography will ineluctably spread over the whole globe, and with it the anonymous transactions systems that it makes possible. For privacy to be widespread it must be part of a social contract. People must come and together deploy these systems for the common good. Privacy only extends so far as the cooperation of one’s fellows in society. – 1993
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Cypherpunks will make the networks safe for privacy. – 1993
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We must defend our own privacy if we expect to have any. We must come together and create systems which allow anonymous transactions to take place. People have been defending their own privacy for centuries with whispers, darkness, envelopes, closed doors, secret handshakes and couriers. The technologies of the past did not allow for strong privacy, but electronic technologies do … We don’t much care if you approve of the software we write. We know that software can’t be destroyed and that a widely dispersed system can’t be shut down. – 1993
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You could join a collective to purchase some information and decrease your actual cost by orders of magnitude – that is, until it is almost free. [A digital co-op could form a private online library and collectively purchase digital movies, albums, software, and expensive newsletters, which they would “lend” to each other over the Net] … increasing the margins where the poor can survive. – 1994
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How large can the flow of money on the nets get before the government requires reporting of every small transaction? Because if the flows can get large enough, past some threshold, then there might be enough aggregate money to provide an economic incentive for transnational service to issue money, and it wouldn’t matter what one government does … It might also be the case that anonymous money will be the only kind of money. – 1994