Cypherpunks & Cyberpunks, The New Wave

Daniel Keller- Agent Smith

The rabbit hole is deep, take one step, and you fall into a new revolution. Many inventive and creative people are leading the charge for decentralization and empowering others with financial freedom, and we need it now more than ever. These are stories of just some of these minds leading the charge wanting to see change, disrupting the now stagnant first wave of disruptors.

It was clear when I talked to them the first time; this group was unique, almost scary. See, I had been in technology for twenty-plus years, just missing the glorious “Dot Com” revolution. I came to the game a little late to ride the extreme excitement that came with new, never seen disruptive technology. Then, of course, I got to know the Bitcoin legend. “Man!” I would have loved to work with Satoshi. The beautiful minds that all worked together, decentralized, pushing out ground-breaking technology. Little did I know, I would be working with a team, that at its core, echoes that same mantra.

To state the Blockchain space is “normal,” it is a complete oxymoron. Blockchain, Crypto, Fintech, or whatever you want to call, it is chaotic at best. At their core, disruptive projects will pass you in days, not months or years. The pace is rapid, nothing I have ever seen in my days of “Business” would prepare you for this. You see, crypto does not sleep, the teams do not sleep, the space does not sleep, and the communities are dispersed; it would be difficult to find someone not awake and working on $Zel 24/7/365. The minds of these new Cyber/Cypherpunks are not about a “Manifesto” but rather the unbridled and sheer determination to change societal norms. Creating a new paradigm of privacy and using that to develop “Next-Gen Internet”.

In the beginning, there were the cyberpunks and cypherpunks both were essential to the evolution of the space. “The Cypherpunk Manifesto” really is that we need to be aware of the past to understand the future adequately. You can read more about that vision here: http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/cyberpunk_manifesto.htm. In essence, The Manifesto can best be summed up as the acknowledgment of the lack of privacy and ability to control your identity online or otherwise. We take for granted today the gifts that are given to us to remain private, however, the current “machine” will chew you up, sell your data, and spit you out. Cypherpunks took up cryptography as a tool for reclaiming some of that privacy, cyberpunks build the tech to keep it all rolling.

The fear and concern is real, now more than ever. The cashless society is here, and the new wave of Cypherpunks and Cyberpunks are the only thing that stands between total financial transparency and….some private control. I know this seems a bit “Orwellian” and perhaps “over the top” to some, it’s not. Privacy, as we know it, will not exist in just a few years unless radical steps are taken to ensure it. Today, you are sitting in quarantine, mandated by the governments of the world. How do you make that shit up?

Fast forward to today, I came to the game late. In a world of young tech developers, I am the “old man.” I did, however, bring something that was needed, business sense! That is where crypto and blockchain can stumble, you see; change is messy and all too often chaotic at best. Disrupters come in all forms, young and old, and now for the first time, we see this span over a branch of technology like never before — disruptors working together to shake up healthcare, financial, technology, and other sectors.

My journey is a unique one; I want to share that journey and how the new Cypherpunks are developing new tools of the trade with you regularly. I once saw a legal document end with “Guard Yourself Accordingly.” It seems to me that this should be a way of life….now more than ever.

These opinions expressed are that of Daniel Keller and not the Zel project at a whole. Zel is a privacy-based cryptocurrency that places usability and security before all well. Learn more about Zel here: https://zel.cash/ you can also download ZelCore here: https://zelcore.io/. All opinions are Daniel’s own and not the opinion of the Zel community or business.