Cyphernomicon
The Cyphernomicon is a 1994 collection of notes and frequently asked questions written by Timothy C. May about cryptography, privacy, electronic money, pseudonyms, surveillance and crypto anarchy. May wrote it for readers of the Cypherpunks mailing list and described it as the FAQ he wanted to read rather than an official statement of the group.[1]
The document is an important primary source for the subjects and arguments discussed by the early cypherpunk community. It is also a dated, personal and deliberately unfinished work, not a current cryptographic reference or a consensus manifesto.
Form and contents
The archived text is roughly 1.2 megabytes and uses a numbered outline rather than a conventional narrative. Its short table of contents lists twenty divisions. After an introduction and a “most frequently asked questions” section, it covers the history and organization of the Cypherpunks, goals and ideology, cryptology, strong encryption, Pretty Good Privacy, anonymous remailers, the Clipper chip and key escrow, legal issues, surveillance, digital cash, activism, advanced cryptographic applications, reputations and credentials, crypto anarchy, possible futures and appendices.[2]
Individual entries mix definitions, reading suggestions, mailing-list history, speculation, political argument and questions for further investigation. The work incorporates May's earlier Crypto Anarchist Manifesto and repeatedly considers how encrypted communication, anonymous markets and digital pseudonyms might affect law, taxation, reputation and state power.
Publication and status
May circulated versions as plain text and released the September 1994 snapshot with supporting contents, release notes and a README. When MIT professor Hal Abelson asked to divide the document into linked chapters for a course website, May gave permission on the condition that his words and credit were preserved. In the same correspondence, May warned that the release contained weak, incomplete and politically contentious sections and could be misrepresented through selective quotation.[3]
Those qualifications affect how the document should be used. It records one influential participant's views and a snapshot of 1990s debate. Technical details may have been superseded, predictions should not be read as reports of later events, and May's political claims do not represent every person who used the Cypherpunks list.
Name
The title combines cypher with nomicon, suggesting a compendium of cypherpunk knowledge. It is distinct from Neal Stephenson's 1999 novel Cryptonomicon. Similarity between the titles has led to occasional confusion, but they are separate works.