Tim May: Original Crypto Anarchist Who Was Displeased With Crypto Hype

Timothy C. May, co-founder of the cypherpunk activist movement and author of "The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto" has passed away at the age of 67.

May is known as the author of "The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto" - published in 1988 - in which he predicted some elements of currently existing decentralized cryptocurrencies.

The cypherpunk ideologist was not happy with where virtual currencies and blockchain were headed, as per his latest interviews.

"The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto" and the rise of the Cypherpunks movementIn September 1988, May wrote "The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto" essay, which was loosely based on Karl Marx's "The Communist Manifesto." He reportedly wrote the 497-word piece in "An hour and a half."

In September 1992, May co-founded an online mailing list called "Cypherpunks" with his friends Eric Hughes and Hugh Daniel.

In a cover story published in 1993, Wired magazine described it as "a gathering of those who share a predilection for codes, a passion for privacy, and the gumption to do something about it." In his Facebook eulogy post, Lucky Green called Cypherpunks "Perhaps the single most effective pro-cryptography grassroots organization in history."

The Cypherpunks list disbanded soon after the 9/11 attack as "a lot of people got cold feet about talking about this stuff."

Interestingly, the anonymous creator of the cryptocurrency was reportedly in communication with the cypherpunk community prior to publishing the white paper and even communicated his ideas to them in an email thread. The concept of Bitcoin soon attracted a new generation of techno-libertarians who self-identify as crypto-anarchists.

As Cointelegraph reported earlier this year, many consider that the cypherpunk movement deserves as much credit as Satoshi Nakamoto for laying down the foundational development of cryptography.

In November 2018, when a Reason editor contacted May and requested an interview, the Cypherpunks co-founder told him that he was done with the press and was "Feeling burned out on the space."