Here is the link to read the manifesto A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto. I will start it off by saying this mean Zcash is the blockchain to make or break an open society in the electronic age. If we the community is too careless about how we use privacy because in the wrong hands, we all know the rest. We as people have a free will so if we chose to show something online, we should have that choice not force.
Privacy is a basic human right, like breathing air, having access to drinking water, food and shelter and (public-) health care. That is what it means to me.
Privacy is a fundamental part of freedom and being human. If companies or institutions can collect information about you to the extend that is currently possible using social media and data aggregation, they can steer your action and decision making.
What is happening in the US and other countries as well right now is a example of an orewelian dystopia. People have "the illusion of free-choice", but they are carefully guided through adds and selective feeding of information to make the decisions big tech wants them to make. They think they are and vote for a candidate that will work in their best interest… but it is all an illusion, with elected leaders working for big tech and top 1%ers tax cuts. In other words, the freedom they perceive is fake and the fundamental flaw that leads to it is lack of privacy.
Privacy by default and optional disclosing of private information (proofs, view keys etc.) is the only true way to achieve financial freedom and empower individuals instead of corporations and state actors. This is all very unfortunate, a government can chose to be good, can chose to respect privacy… its just the temptation… a bit more control, more power and before you know it you have a corrupt, power hungry government who leeches of its population. I have still hope, no need for complete anarchy, but neither is there space for complacency. We have to protect everyone’s fundamental right to privacy, because without it their is only “the illusion of freedom”, not the real thing.
-End rant.
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The line that has stood out to me is “Privacy is the power to selectively reveal oneself to the world.” That’s a much more precise idea than “hide everything”. It means control over information flow. In technical terms, the goal is not secrecy for its own sake but minimising unnecessary disclosure while preserving the ability to prove what matters.
That’s why the manifesto feels remarkably current. Most modern systems default to total observability and then try to patch privacy on top. The cypherpunk view flips that model: anonymity by default, disclosure by choice. To me, Zcash is one of the clearest implementations of that principle. It turns privacy from a police promise into a cryptographic property, which is exactly what Hughes was arguing for more than 30 years ago.
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I love that text and find it very enriching. Personally, I have used it as a starting point to delve deeper into various aspects mentioned within it and to gain a greater awareness of Zcash’s mission. However, it is also important to consider that it was written in a specific context, one in which the internet was not yet as open as it is today. While the text makes some remarkably accurate predictions, it is also true that the open internet has since permeated practically every layer of human interaction: academic, social, professional, familial, romantic, and so on.
This open internet—which is not designed to preserve privacy—has permeated our lives so deeply that it might now be more difficult to be a cypherpunk. Here is an X thread that mentions some very interesting points.
A thread on the question of being a cyberpunk in modern times: Danny Willems
But it is also fair to say that we now possess powerful tools. In the case of money, cypherpunks would no longer have to write code to create a currency embodying those values, because we already have ZEC. It seems that the mission now is to scale up and secure the achievements gained.