"'The Net is an anarchy.' This truism is the core of crypto anarchy—no

central control, no ruler, no leader (except by example or reputation), no

'laws.' No single nation controls the Net, no administrative body sets

policy.

"...This essential anarchy is much more common than many think.

Anarchy (the absence of a ruler telling another person what to do) is

common in many walks of life—choosing books to read, movies to see,

friends to socialize with, and so on. Anarchy does not mean complete

freedom (we can, after all, read only the books that someone has written

and had published), but it does mean freedom from external coercion.

"...Strong crypto provides a technological means of ensuring the practical

freedom to read and write what one wishes to...And of course if speech is free, so are many classes of economic interaction that are essentially tied to free speech.

"A phase change is coming. Virtual communities are in their ascendancy, displacing conventional notions of nationhood. Geographic proximity is no longer as important as it once was.

"...We will be the colonizers of cyberspace."

– Timothy C. May, "Crypto Anarchy and Virtual Communities" (1994)

https://monoskop.org/images/4/42/Ludlow_Peter_Crypto_Anarchy_Cyberstates_and_Pirate_Utopias.pdf

https://nostr.download/a527749ca99f5caae6ef5c8eb6e8f1125370d8b65c1e6cdb546799ff8ecd1f4b.webp