The first critique of centralized authority was advanced by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in 1848, a few years after publishing his now classic book. What is property?, calling for the abolition of property and the state. In Proudhon's view, without economic change, any political change would be limited.
His work is at the heart of anarchism, "a political theory that is skeptical of the justification of authority and power." according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Nearly two centuries later, Proudhon's thoughts on economics and power still reverberate through society, with encryption tools paving the way for parts of the ideal society envisioned in his theory.
Cryptocurrencies may be far from their original political principles, but projects that revive cypherpunk values โโcontinue to thrive. DarkFi is an example. A multi-chain Layer 1 protocol for anonymous applications and smart contracts driven by zero-knowledge proofs.
DarkFi, however, "is not a corporate startup. It is a democratic economic experiment, an operating system for society." claims his manifesto. Cryptoanarchy, according to DarkFi, "is the tactic of using cryptography to create a space of freedom that cannot be penetrated by the power and monopolies of capital with coercive force."
The DarkFi manifesto also states that:
"The old model of technology is anti-political because it removes ownership from the people and places it in the hands of the monopoly. The old model encourages passivity and indifference by design, reducing people to consumers."
Behind the project is a team of anarchist coders, including Amir Taak, an early Bitcoin developer who led the Project Dark Wallet before it got dark in 2015, when disappeared from the crypto scene to fight in Syria against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), while trying to introduce Bitcoin to the local community.
A group of pseudonymous DarkFi developers spoke to Cointelegraph in an interview about the project's testnet and how the cryptocurrency industry is evolving between privacy challenges, bad actors, government oversight, and politics. This interview has been edited and abridged for clarity.
Cointelegraph (CT): What is DarkFi and what issues does it address in the crypto space?
DarkiFi (DF): DarkFi is a community and a movement that tries to create systems that empower users, allowing an individual to preserve fundamental human rights, such as the right to privacy, freedom of expression, and the right to interact with one another without intermediaries. Some of those systems are a layer 1 blockchain with default privacy, a peer-to-peer IRC messaging system with encrypted groups and DMs, and even decentralized collaboration tools for organization, task management, etc.
The crypto space has lost its original cypherpunk values, succumbing to state pressure by imposing sanctions and/or implementing backdoors, so that projects can survive. Privacy has become a taboo, which under current conditions often results in the violent termination of development, in the name of transparency and the prevention of illicit activities. Crypto will split into two: RegFi, unusable and locked down, and DarkFi, a truly free, decentralized, and uncensored paradigm. That is what we are trying to address, counterattack, if you will, to retain minuteman power, not serve individuals on a gold platter in states and mega-corporations for fiat gain.
CT: What came first when developing DarkFi, the anarchist crypto vision or the need for base layer solutions for multi-chain applications?
DF: With DarkFi, we want to create anonymous and secure cryptography. Just like Monero and Zcash are for money, DarkFi is for apps/smart contracts. We feel there is a huge market and need to be able to develop anonymous decentralized financial applications. This has not been possible until now.
"The crypto space has lost its original cypherpunk values, succumbing to state pressure by imposing sanctions and/or implementing backdoors, so projects can survive. Privacy has become taboo."
We believe that with privacy by default and maximum anonymity, we will allow people to organize and act in much safer spaces and ecosystems. We're also very inspired by Richard Stallman and the free software movement, which is why (unlike most things crypto) DarkFi is fully licensed under the GNU AGPL license, and we follow the free software philosophy.
CT: How can encryption technologies contribute to a balanced environment between personal freedom, government oversight, and avoiding bad actors at the same time?
DF: The purpose of encryption technologies is to allow users to "hide things in plain sight." Surveillance, government or otherwise, contradicts this, as it allows third parties to "sniff" what's inside. Individuals should not cede control of their freedom, especially to a government, which is supposed to work for the individual, not the other way around. By using these technologies, users can protect themselves against bad actors trying to track them down to exploit them.
CT: What role does Web3 play in the future politics and privacy of society?
DF: What is currently called "Web3" is becoming a surveillance tool that is being increasingly abused by adversaries and officials. If this continues, the "future privacy" of society will be almost non-existent, and politics will be a dictatorship in which every user and citizen must stay online to avoid being considered unwanted by their oppressors.
CT: How can cryptocurrencies stay aligned with their core principles as they become mainstream and therefore more political?
DF: It seems that the whole cypherpunk grassroots movement of the early days of Bitcoin has slowly been lost. It is becoming more and more capitalist and might not be "more political". In fact, with most projects, it seems they will do everything in their power to be less political and more "diverse and inclusive". They have no bite and just succumb to the numbing schedule. There are very few projects in the crypto space that are political and have come to my attention.
CT: Do cryptocurrencies have a future without politics?
DF: Crypto is not a fancy technology. Ciphers began as a parallel language between generals and kings to deter enemies. They are only visible to senders and receivers. Ciphers were used in ancient times, the Middle Ages, and breaking the ciphers fueled the development of computers in the last century. They have always been necessary.
In this era, communication, work and transactions are the basic elements of any society that happens behind the screens. At the other end of the channel are monitoring and surveillance.
"What is currently called 'Web3' is becoming a surveillance tool that is being increasingly abused by adversaries and officials."
The enemy of cryptocurrencies before computers was in foreign territories. Now that the enemy is close, cryptocurrencies create a parallel and safe space beyond regulations, sanctions and state policies. Crypto is not against politics, it is used to deter your enemy. The enemies of the individual that cryptocurrency concerns are monitoring and surveillance, and the principles of cryptocurrency do not compromise the security of freedom.
CT: What are the next steps on the DarkFi roadmap?
DF: We've just launched our initial testnet, so we're having the community test the UX and find bugs we've written, so we can iterate and improve. As for future plans, we are expanding in multiple directions when it comes to blockchain. We also hope that we can educate people about the importance of free software and its philosophy. Open source alone is not enough. Developers and founders must stop submitting to Big Tech and use cryptographic mechanisms to capture value within their projects and remain sovereign.
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