What happened to the cypherpunks?

[Jason Evans]

For those that don't know, according to Wikipedia:

"A cypherpunk is any activist advocating widespread use of strong
cryptography and privacy-enhancing technologies as a route to social and
political change. Originally communicating through the Cypherpunks
electronic mailing list, informal groups aimed to achieve privacy and
security through proactive use of cryptography. Cypherpunks have been
engaged in an active movement since the late 1980s."

So what happened to this group? I know a few of them like Timothy C. May
died. I know some went on to work at the EFF, some on the Tor Project,
and a lot went to work on different cryptocurrencies. However, I'm
surprised that there isn't still a core group online.

alt.cypherpunks has been dead for years. The current Cypherpunks mailing
list is still going but it is nothing more than a handful of right-wing
and left-wing conspiracy theorist who gripe about politics all the time
and never talk about actual technology.

I'm hoping that someone knows something that I don't or could point me in
the right direction. Maybe those interested can even start again.

x-posted to alt.cypherpunks and r/cypherpunk

[John Levine]

Post by Jason Evans
So what happened to this group? I know a few of them like Timothy C. May
died. I know some went on to work at the EFF, some on the Tor Project,
and a lot went to work on different cryptocurrencies. However, I'm
surprised that there isn't still a core group online.

There's some live mailing lists, notably this one:

https://www.metzdowd.com/mailman/listinfo/cryptography

I expect there are invite-only fora where you and I aren't invited.

[Jorgen Grahn]

Post by Jason Evans
"A cypherpunk is any activist advocating widespread use of strong
cryptography and privacy-enhancing technologies as a route to social and
political change. Originally communicating through the Cypherpunks
electronic mailing list, informal groups aimed to achieve privacy and
security through proactive use of cryptography. Cypherpunks have been
engaged in an active movement since the late 1980s."
So what happened to this group? I know a few of them like Timothy C. May
died. I know some went on to work at the EFF, some on the Tor Project,
and a lot went to work on different cryptocurrencies. However, I'm
surprised that there isn't still a core group online.

Maybe my social circles have changed, but there were more like people
that in, say, the late 1990s. I'm not speaking about activists
online, but programmers you met and worked with. The kind of people
who would refuse to use proprietary crypto and used the word
"paranoid" in a positive sense.

The battle seems lost now, anyhow.

/Jorgen

[Guns & Butter]

Post by Jason Evans
I'm hoping that someone knows something that I don't or could point me in
the right direction. Maybe those interested can even start again.

The cypherpunks mailing list is still active.

Here is the link: https://lists.cpunks.org/

I have no idea why they don't employ usenet newsgroups and I'm not
inclined to ask. Cypherpunks have claimed to promote decentralized
communication that is harder to attack. Having a email list with one
central point of failure seems counter to the old cypherpunk ethos.

Perhaps spam, crank, and other nitwittery is a big factor in choosing a
mailing list.

You can use anonymous remailers to post to the list. That's old school.

[Grant Taylor]

Post by Jason Evans
I'm hoping that someone knows something that I don't or could point
me in the right direction. Maybe those interested can even start again.

I know that a small number of people in alt.privacy.anon-server talk
about some of the remailer technology. Maybe some people there can
redirect you to the current location of the people that you're looking for.