The magic of public-key crypto can be extended far beyond the exchange of messages with secrecy. Ultimately, its value will be to provide anonymity, the right most threatened by a fully digitized society.
Predictor: Cypherpunks
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 article for Wired magazine, Steven Levy writes about encryption issues, explaining the Cypherpunks’ point of view: ”As the Cypherpunks see it, the magic of public-key crypto can be extended far beyond the exchange of messages with secrecy. Ultimately, its value will be to provide anonymity, the right most threatened by a fully digitized society. Our transactions and conversations are now more easily traced by the digital trails we leave behind. By following the electronic links we make, one can piece together a depressingly detailed profile of who we are: Our health records, phone bills, credit histories, arrest records, and electronic mail all connect our actions and expressions to our physical selves. Crypto presents the possibility of severing these links. It is possible to use cryptography to actually limit the degree to which one can track the trail of a transaction. This is why certain Cypherpunks are hard at work creating remailers that allow messages to be sent without any possible means of tracing who sent the message. Ideally, if someone chooses a pseudonym in one of these systems, no one else can send mail under that name. This allows for the possibility of a true digital persona – an ‘identity’ permanently disembodied from one’s physical being.”
Date of prediction: May 1, 1993
Topic of prediction: Communication
Subtopic: Security/Encryption
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: Crypto Rebels
Quote Type: Paraphrase
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.02/crypto.rebels_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney