30 years ago this week, Hal Finney joined The Cypherpunks Mailing List and famously said, "The computer can be used as a tool to liberate and protect people, rather than to control them"

In September 1992, three Bay Area computer scientists, John Gilmore, Eric Hughes and Tim May started the legendary Cypherpunks Mailing List, an open space for the discussion of technologies and advances in favor of privacy and anonymity.

30 years ago this week, on the 10th of October 1992 Hal Finney joined the Cyperpunks Mailing List. It's hard to find a person with so much love and enthusiasm for life and liberty than Hal Finney.

In his first message, Hal Finney introduced himself and suggested using public key cryptography to know you're talking to the right person online.

Hal Finney's first message - Cypherpunks Mailing List archive - 10 Oct 92

On the 15th of November 1992, Hal Finney shared his now immortal message, "The computer can be used as a tool to liberate and protect people, rather than to control them."

I would urge everyone to read the entire message from this archive. Finney's foresight is unbelievable. He writes about how large organizations will be threatened and not support these ideas because a balance of power would be a net loss of power for them and that it has to be a grassroots movement "in which individuals first learn of how much power they can have, and then demand it."

Cypherpunks Mailing List archive - 15 Nov 92

The Cypherpunks Mailing List first became wildly popular after the release of "A Cypherpunk's Manifesto" in 1993. It is a proclamation as sacred as the Bitcoin whitepaper.

"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. We publish our code so that our fellow Cypherpunks may practice and play with it. Our code is free for all to use, worldwide. We don't much care if you don't 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."

A Cypherpunk's Manifesto - 9 Mar 93

​

​

Hal Finney loved running marathons. Photo from 1980s recently shared by his wife, Fran Finney

Submitted October 14, 2022 at 09:55PM by KAX1107 https://bit.ly/3RWo70w