"The Cyphernomicon" is a document written by Timothy C. May

Timothy C. May

Timothy C. May, better known as Tim May, is a technical and political writer, and was an electronic engineer and senior scientist at Intel in the company's early history...

 in 1994 for the Cypherpunk

Cypherpunk

A cypherpunk is an activist advocating widespread use of strong cryptography as a route to social and political change.Originally communicating through the Cypherpunks electronic mailing list, informal groups aimed to achieve privacy and security through proactive use of cryptography...

s electronic mailing list

Electronic mailing list

An electronic mailing list is a special usage of email that allows for widespread distribution of information to many Internet users. It is similar to a traditional mailing list — a list of names and addresses — as might be kept by an organization for sending publications to...

, outlining some ideas behind, and the effects of, crypto-anarchism

Crypto-anarchism

Crypto-anarchism expounds the use of strong public-key cryptography to bring about privacy and freedom. It was described by Vernor Vinge as a cyberspatial realization of anarchism. Crypto-anarchists aim to create cryptographic software that can be used to evade prosecution and harassment while...

. It constitutes one of the philosophy's founding documents, advocating anonymous digital currency

Electronic money

Electronic money is money or scrip that is only exchanged electronically. Typically, this involves the use of computer networks, the internet and digital stored value systems...

 and electronic privacy, and touching on more esoteric topics, such as assassination markets.

The document is written and formatted as a lengthy FAQ

FAQ

Frequently asked questions are listed questions and answers, all supposed to be commonly asked in some context, and pertaining to a particular topic. "FAQ" is usually pronounced as an initialism rather than an acronym, but an acronym form does exist. Since the acronym FAQ originated in textual...

. It contains many short notes on ideas, questions and claims ordered in sections. It also contains May's 1992 essay "The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto", in section 16.4.2.

Example

16.2 - SUMMARY: Crypto Anarchy



16.2.1. Main Points

  - "...when you want to smash the State, everything looks like

     a hammer."

  - strong crypto as the "building material" for cyberspace

     (making the walls, the support beams, the locks)

16.2.2. Connections to Other Sections

  - this section ties all the other sections together

16.2.3. Where to Find Additional Information

  - again, almost nothing written on this

  - Vinge, Friedman, Rand, etc.

16.2.4. Miscellaneous Comments

  - a very long section, possibly confusing to many