Timothy C. May's Cypherpunks FAQ, The Cyphernomicon (Version 0.666, September 1994), an outline of the group's history, ideas and arguments written by one of its founders.
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May dates his thinking on crypto and the state to late 1987, when public-key crypto, anonymous digital cash and information markets struck him as the end of governments as we know them.
May recalls how Jude Milhon's quip at the earliest meetings, "You guys are just a bunch of cypherpunks," became the group's name, and why the link to cyberpunk fiction felt natural.
May explains the list's slogan "Cypherpunks write code" as a clarifying statement rather than an imperative, and estimates how few members actually wrote code.
May notes that he devised the "Big Brother Inside" slogan against the Clipper chip himself, at a Clipper meeting.
May tells newcomers that the list has no debate about the Clipper chip because it was thoroughly trashed within hours and days of its April 16, 1993 announcement.
May's outline of the group's start: talks with Eric Hughes, a first meeting in the week PGP 2.0 came out, the afternoon "Crypto Game," and John Gilmore's offer of a list site and office space.
May recalls three days of talk with Eric Hughes in May 1992 about how slowly academic cryptography became working code, and the aim to get actual running code for digital cash and mixes.
May explains the group's attachment to PGP: its first meeting in September 1992 fell within days of PGP 2.0's release, and PGP was a practical tool hobbyists could actually use.
May notes that PGP 2.0 arrived the same week as the Cypherpunks' first meeting in Oakland in September 1992, and just six months before the Clipper announcement.