"The keyboard is the great equalizer — better than the Glock .45." — St. Jude (Jude Milhon) (Modem Grrrl (Wired), 1995) #technology #empowerment #equality #defense

"Bitcoin is not a list of cryptographic features, it's a very complex system of interacting mathematics and protocols in pursuit of what was a very unpopular goal." — Nick Szabo (Bitcoin, what took ye so long?, 2011) #bitcoin #cryptography #protocols

"They're abridging the freedom and privacy of all citizens—to defend us against a bogeyman that they will not explain. The decision to literally trade away our privacy is one that must be made by the whole society, not made unilaterally by a military spy agency." — John Gilmore (Crypto Rebels (WIRED), 1993) #privacy #freedom #government #nsa #democracy

"Cash is an escape valve in our increasingly intermediated and therefore surveilled world." — Jerry Brito (The Case for Electronic Cash, 2019) #cash #privacy #surveillance #freedom

"Google and Facebook are not really in the business of data – they are in the business of power." — Carissa Véliz (Privacy is power (Aeon), 2019) #surveillance #power #techcompanies #data

"The internet is a tool of freedom and self-determination. Meddling in its mechanics is destructive. Whenever a website is blocked, a protocol is corrupted at some low level or undesirable traffic shaping occurs then seismic ripples of censorship and destruction lead to degradation of the network. The internet is fundamental to humanity, and must be protected at all costs." — Amir Taaki (The libbitcoin Manifesto, 2013) #internet #freedom #censorship #resistance

"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

"Perhaps we never fully understand that balance until one of those secret rights disappears without warning, because no one even knew it mattered until it was gone." — Peter Valkenburgh (Your Secret Right to Cash, 2017) #rights #warning #privacy #freedom

"You can't awaken someone who's pretending to be asleep." — Edward Snowden (Joe Rogan Experience, 2019)

"We cannot expect governments, corporations, or other large, faceless organizations to grant us privacy out of their beneficence." — Eric Hughes (A Cypherpunk's Manifesto, 1993) #privacy #government #corporations

"When a company goes to develop a product, that has only two options, secure or insecure, they should, from day one, define the product as either secure or insecure." — Martin Hellman (Charles Babbage Institute Oral History, 2004) #security #transparency

"A cashless economy is a surveillance economy." — Jerry Brito (The Case for Electronic Cash, 2019) #cash #surveillance #privacy #economics

"I am an engineer, not a mathematician. I try to find practical solutions to actual problems." — Philip Zimmermann (GrepLaw, 2003) #cryptography

"Cypherpunks write code. We know that someone has to write software to defend privacy, and since we can't get privacy unless we all do, we're going to write it." — Eric Hughes (A Cypherpunk's Manifesto, 1993) #cypherpunk #code

"Instead of trying to convince our current government not to try, we'll develop the technology (e.g., remailers and ecash) that will make it impossible for the government to succeed." — Wei Dai (Cypherpunks mailing list, 1995) #ecash #remailers

"I've noticed that cryptographic graybeards (I was in my mid 50's) tend to get cynical. I was more idealistic; I have always loved crypto, the mystery and the paradox of it." — Hal Finney (Bitcoin and Me, 2013) #cryptography #cypherpunk

"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

"What is the greatest unsolved problem in cryptography today? Lack of user awareness." — Martin Hellman (Charles Babbage Institute Oral History, 2004) #cryptography

"Bitcoin is not just a currency. It's a platform for trust." — Andreas Antonopoulos (The Internet of Money, 2016) #bitcoin #trust

"Trusted third parties are security holes." — Nick Szabo (Trusted Third Parties are Security Holes, 2001) #security #trust #decentralization