Reminder: The math that powers Bitcoin, SSL, and private messaging is only legal today because a small community of cryptographers and programmers defied the government, ignored unconstitutional regulations, and kept building. "Cypherpunks write code." ----- In the early 1990s, the cypherpunk movement—a group of libertarian cryptographers, mathematicians, hackers, and activists—arose to resist government surveillance and censorship. They believed strong cryptography was essential to protect privacy and ensure freedom in the digital age. Since governments, especially the US, classified encryption technology (like RSA) as military munitions and restricted their export, cypherpunks engaged in "civil disobedience" by widely sharing encryption code openly. One notable act was by Adam Back, who used the RSA encryption algorithm written in just a few lines of Perl as his email signature. This was an illegal act of protest against export restrictions, sparking others to replicate this by putting cryptographic code into t-shirts, email footers, and other public forms as a symbol of rebellion and code advocacy. This act embodied the cypherpunk mantra: "Cypherpunks write code." They believed practical implementation and distribution of encryption tools was key to fighting surveillance and advancing privacy. Their efforts helped win the "Crypto Wars" of the 1990s, easing government restrictions and setting the foundation for privacy technologies like secure messaging, anonymous remailers, and eventually cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.