We're living in a future that was already written. Not by prophets with stone tablets, but by academics and futurists decades ago. They literally spelled out our present: the computerized state, the erosion of privacy—none of this is a surprise. We're just swimming in it now. Back in the 1960s, people like Paul Baran were already warning us: engineers building systems of total control were becoming “sellouts,” crafting the very tools of their own oppression. Today, their words don’t read like theory—they read like a manual for survival.

The big question today isn’t “Does surveillance exist?” It’s “What can we actually do about it?” And more and more people are finding answers not in politics or protests, but in math. In the philosophy of cypherpunks, which, honestly, only gets more relevant with time.

The Battlefield’s Changed

That famous line, “cryptography is the weapon of the weak against the strong,” needs a reboot. The “strong” aren’t just governments anymore. Threats are everywhere: from corporations hoarding our data for convenience, to black-box algorithms that decide what we see and know.

We’re letting the enemy right through the door. We gladly hand over personal stuff to social networks and apps, naively thinking there’s some clear line between corporate and government control. That’s an illusion. Data collected by one will eventually end up with the other. The result is always the same: a permanent, searchable dossier on every one of us, available to anyone with power or access—officials, rogue employees, hackers.

“I Have Nothing to Hide” – The Most Dangerous Myth

That argument against privacy is surveillance propaganda’s biggest win. Philosophical debates about a free society don’t cut it anymore. But there’s something simpler and scarier.

Think about all those data leaks—terabytes of personal info dumped online. This isn’t about hiding crimes. It’s about the fact that your data can be used for blackmail, identity theft, and stalking. They know everything about you: your commute, your spending habits, when you’re not home. It’s a ready-made plan for anyone who wants to cause harm. Cryptography is just a digital lock on your door. You don’t install it because you have something to hide—you do it because you have a right to safety.

New Threats: AI, CBDCs, and the Illusion of Choice

Cypherpunks today are fighting threats that used to be sci-fi.

  • Facial Recognition & Predictive Analytics: The danger isn’t just the tech itself—it’s its errors and the total power it enables. Innocent people are jailed because an algorithm glitched. These systems are black boxes: they make decisions no one can explain or challenge. We can’t ban the tech, but we can ban its use by governments—draw a line between technology and tyranny.
  • CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies): To cypherpunks, this is the final merger of financial control and surveillance. The counterweight is still crypto—real digital cash, not a tool for state oversight.
  • The AI Paradox: Artificial intelligence is often called an “oracle,” but in reality, it’s often just a fancy statistical model. The biggest threat is our blind faith in its answers. It’s crucial to remember: AI isn’t magic. It’s just a tool—and often a flawed one.

The Pressure and the Hope

The development of privacy tools is under fire. Attacks on projects like Tornado Cash and the arrests of developers send a clear message: protecting privacy is dangerous. Innovation is being driven underground.

But that pressure itself proves how much this matters. Every government attempt to ban encryption or ramp up surveillance makes ordinary people think twice about privacy. State overreach is becoming the cypherpunk movement’s best recruiter.

What’s Next?

The fight for privacy isn’t a war you win once. It’s an endless arms race between the system and the individual. You can start small: use open-source software, enable full-disk encryption, choose hardware security keys, and most importantly, shift your mindset toward conscious data minimalism.

The “Cypherpunk Manifesto” is still relevant today. We don’t need to rewrite it—we need to live it. To build systems where privacy isn’t a niche feature for paranoids, but a default for everyone. Cryptography is our best weapon not because it makes us stronger, but because it lets us stay human—flawed, complex, and free—in a system that wants us transparent and compliant.

Written by Christina Abolenskaya