The Promise of Crypto-Anarchy...

in #anarchy6 years ago

Crypto-anarchists have largely built the digital world we see around us today: public-private key encryption, digital signatures, and crypto-currencies, the first two of which directly enabled the online shopping marketplaces that so many of us patronize today (i.e. Amazon and Ebay).

They have built the tools for us to communicate and browse anonymously, oftentimes directly challenging the State, risking ending up like Ross Ulbricht. What crypto-anarchists do is heroic and they are at the frontier of self-liberation.

5 years ago, Cody Wilson, founder of Defense Distributed, set out to make the means of self-defense accessible to anyone in the world; and he succeeded. Unsurprisingly, the federal government forced him to take down the gun files for the 3D printed, Liberator pistol, lest he face prosecution and fines.

Well, earlier this month, the State gave up and settled the long-standing lawsuit Cody and DD had been pursuing...and, as Cody said, "What's about to happen is a Cambrian explosion of the digital content related to firearms."

In other words, gun control is officially dead, not only here in the US, but anywhere in the world wherein an individual has access to an Internet connection. And the political crusaders had absolutely nothing to do with it (if anything, they held up or reversed progress).

As Cody and others have demonstrated, this fight for personal freedom requires boldness, courage, and the creativity to innovate. Crypto-anarchism is an open-source movement, and therefore, it's up to each and every one of us to contribute in whatever manner we can, even if it's simply financially supporting or spreading the word about projects that we deem worthwhile.

But, most importantly, this fight requires action. So, I ask, what will you do?

Read the full Wired article discussing the settlement here: https://www.wired.com/story/a-landmark-legal-shift-opens-pandoras-box-for-diy-guns/


Shane is the founder of Liberty Under Attack and host of LUA Radio, a once-weekly podcast released every Sunday; he also does The Vonu Podcast, which is released every Tuesday. He is a free market anarchist committed to providing solutions to his listeners and readers, so that they can create the freedom they desire in their own lives, RIGHT NOW, despite the State.

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Very nice. It's as I've said many times: governments, by nature of the collective mind, move slowly. Individuals and decentralized movements are able to move much faster. And that is encouraging as fuck.

P.s. found your post because it was resteemed by @kafkanarchy84

Exactly right, Nate. It is super encouraging, despite the State's ever-growing and seemingly more violent nature.

Welcome! Graham is an awesome dude.

Short but nice touch post. Looking for more...

@shaneradliff maybe something will change

not really well informed about this, but a few years back I heard that the 3-d printed guns suck compared to regular ones. Did this improve significantly?

Then there is the question about ammunition. If you use a shotgun you can quite simply manufacture yourself, but normal rounds could be made illegal?

The 3D-Printed Liberator pistols were more a philosophical victory than a practical one. They work, but obviously, I wouldn't recommend carrying one for self-defense or anything.

What's practically more important, in my opinion, are things like the Feinstein mag for AR-15's and such. They completely subvert the magazine bans imposed in some states and locales, and they work just as well as any you would purchase from a gun supplier.

As far as ammunition, I'm not really sure. I know reloading is a thing, but I feel it would depend upon where you live as to whether or not that would be legal. If I were to have a concern, it would lie with ammunition for the guns the media has been focused on for awhile: rifle ammo.

What's important in my article above is that gun control is now effectively dead: Defense Distributed uploads the CAD files and anyone in the world who has access to the Internet and 3D printer/CNC machining device can create their own means of self-defense, without much technical expertise.

Thanks for your comment!

"Crypto-anarchists have largely built the digital world we see around us today: public-private key encryption, digital signatures, and crypto-currencies ..."

would have loved to read more about that because I know so little about it (Assange stems from a crypto anarchist group out of Melbourne, doesn't he?) but important post regardless.

Crypto-anarchism is super fascinating. This was only a short email to my email list that I re-posted here, so I wasn't going to go into a bunch of details.

If you're interested in learning more, I'd recommend Timothy May's book, "Crypto Anarchy, Cyberstates, and Pirate Utopias," in addition to "Crypto" by Steven Levy. In the former, May lays out what is to come in the digital realm and in the latter, Levy goes through the history of encryption/cryptography, up until the mid 2000's. Fascinating stuff.

Yes, Assange is most certainly a crypto-anarchist.

Thanks for checking out the post and for commenting!

Thank you for commenting back and the recommendations!

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