2.4.10. “Where did the name ‘Cypherpunks’ come from?”
- Jude Milhon, aka St. Jude, then an editor at “Mondo 2000,”
was at the earliest meetings…she quipped “You guys are
just a bunch of cypherpunks.” The name was adopted
immediately.
- The ‘cyberpunk’ genre of science fiction often deals with issues of cyberspace and computer security (“ice”), so the link is natural. A point of confusion is that cyberpunks are popularly thought of as, well, as “punks,” while many Cyberpunks are frequently libertarians and anarchists of various stripes. In my view, the two are not in conflict.
- Some, however, would prefer a more staid name. The U.K. branch calls itself the “U.K. Crypto Privacy Association.” <check this> However, the advantages of the name are clear. For one thing, many people are bored by staid names. For another, it gets us noticed by journalists and others.
- We are actually not very “punkish” at all. About as punkish as most of our cyberpunk cousins are, which is to say, not very.
- the name
- Crypto Cabal (this before the sci.crypt FAQ folks appeared, I think), Crypto Liberation Front, other names
- not everybody likes the name…such is life
