Ethereum's "New Cypherpunk" Manifesto: Returning to the Story of Privacy

In recent years, the story of the cryptocurrency industry has been almost entirely dominated by financialization logic. From DeFi and NFTs to MEME and ETFs, the market’s focus has increasingly shifted toward asset prices, liquidity, and institutional investment flows. However, the Ethereum community recently proposed that “privacy is experiencing a renaissance” and reiterated the concept of “neo-cypherpunk,” which in some ways is a return to core values. Ethereum is reminding the entire industry that the original purpose of blockchain was not just financial speculation but also to protect individual rights and freedoms in the digital world through cryptography. Privacy, censorship resistance, open source, and security—these seemingly ideal principles are actually the core deep logic of the cryptocurrency industry, and perhaps that is the meaning behind Ethereum’s “new cypherpunk” story. I. From Cypherpunks to Ethereum: The Intellectual Roots of the Cryptocurrency Industry To understand why Ethereum places such emphasis on privacy, we must first revisit the ideological origins of the industry—the cypherpunk movement. In the 1990s, a group of programmers, cryptographers, and internet idealists discussed a question on a mailing list: once the internet becomes a social infrastructure, will personal privacy still be protected? Their answer was that ensuring privacy would be nearly impossible if relying solely on governments and corporations. The only solution was cryptography. This group was called “Cypherpunks.” Their core idea was to enable individuals to maintain privacy, freedom, and resistance to censorship in the digital world through open source and cryptographic tools. A famous saying in cypherpunk culture is: Privacy is not about keeping secrets, but about the right to choose how to present oneself to the world. The creation of Bitcoin is essentially a direct product of cypherpunk thinking. When Satoshi Nakamoto designed Bitcoin, he hoped to escape the control of traditional financial systems via a decentralized network, giving individuals absolute control over their assets. Ethereum was built on this foundation. Compared to Bitcoin’s single currency system, Ethereum offers an open platform where smart contracts can operate, enabling decentralized applications. However, the cryptocurrency industry has gradually undergone some changes over the past few years. With increasing capital inflows and market expansion, more projects have begun to focus on financial innovation. Financial tools like liquidity mining, yield farming, and derivatives trading are rapidly developing, turning blockchain into a massive on-chain financial market. During this process, the core narrative of the industry has also shifted. Technological ideals have been gradually replaced by financial logic, while topics like privacy and digital rights have been sidelined. Therefore, when Ethereum revisits the “spirit of cypherpunk,” it is essentially reminding the industry that blockchain is not just a financial technology but also a social value system in the digital age. II. “Neo-cypherpunk”: Upgrading the Value System in the Web3 Era The concept of “new cypherpunk” proposed by Ethereum is not merely a return to the cypherpunk movement of the 1990s but a modern upgrade of it. Traditional cypherpunks are like an ideological culture emphasizing personal privacy, encrypted communication, and resistance to government surveillance. In the Web3 era, this concept has been expanded into a more comprehensive cooperative system. Ethereum officials summarized a set of keywords: CROPS, standing for Censorship Resistance, Open Source, Privacy, and Security. These four principles form the core of the new cypherpunk culture. First, it is resistance to censorship. On traditional internet platforms, control over content and accounts often lies with the platform providers. Blockchain networks, through their decentralized architecture, allow anyone to participate freely, making it very difficult for a single organization to shut down or control. Second, open source. Most core technologies in the industry are open source, meaning anyone can view the code, verify the logic, and contribute to improvements. Open source not only increases transparency but also promotes a globally collaborative development model. Third, privacy. In the Web 2.0 era, user data is often collected and used by internet companies for commercial purposes, with users having little control over where their data goes. Cypherpunk philosophy advocates that users should have control over their personal data. Finally, security. Blockchain systems rely on cryptography and distributed networks to ensure security, which does not come from centralized institutions but from mathematics and consensus mechanisms. Besides CROPS, neo-cypherpunk advocates emphasize other important principles such as decentralized cooperation, permissionless access, and trustlessness. “Permissionless” means anyone can deploy applications or perform transactions on the network without platform approval. Immutability reduces reliance on third-party organizations through programmable logic and smart contracts. Users do not need to trust a specific company or organization but only the transparent, open logic of the code. These ideas together form the cultural foundation of Web3. Thus, Ethereum’s “new cypherpunk” proposal is essentially an effort to reaffirm this culture and bring the entire ecosystem back to a long-term technological vision. III. The Resurgence of Privacy: Why Now Is Critical Ethereum believes this could be a pivotal period in the development of personal data protection technologies for several reasons. Technological maturity is a key factor. Over the past few years, zero-knowledge proof (ZK) technology has made significant progress. ZK allows users to prove a fact without revealing specific data—for example, proving a transaction is legitimate without disclosing the amount or address. This technology provides a crucial foundation for private transactions, privacy-preserving identity, and privacy-preserving computation. Meanwhile, the development of Layer 2 networks offers new opportunities for security features. Some new networks are beginning to experiment with integrating security features directly into their infrastructure, providing users with enhanced default data protection. Another practical issue arises from on-chain transparency. Many newcomers to blockchain think it is anonymous. In reality, most public blockchains have fully transparent data. Knowing an address allows you to trace its entire transaction history. Thanks to advanced on-chain analysis tools, many organizations can identify the entities behind addresses through data analysis. This means that if users hold large assets or frequently transact, their behavior can be tracked over time. Therefore, more people are realizing that blockchain needs not only transparency but also optional privacy. Another factor is the rise of digital identity. As the Web3 ecosystem develops, more social relationships, asset information, and on-chain identities are recorded on blockchain. If all this data is fully public, it could pose security risks. For example, some users may not want to reveal their asset size or trading strategies, as this could lead to targeted attacks. Thus, Web3 may need a new identity system in the future: one that can prove identity and trustworthiness without revealing too much personal information. Zero-knowledge proofs and privacy-preserving computation technologies are key tools to achieve this. Conclusion: Privacy could be the core theme of the next phase. As Ethereum reaffirms the “neo-cypherpunk” concept and the resurgence of privacy, it is not just a cultural expression but could also signal a shift in the industry narrative. In recent years, the focus of the crypto market has mainly been on financial innovation and capital flows. However, with technological advances and growing user demands, issues like privacy, digital identity, and data sovereignty may once again become central. If security technologies can be integrated with DeFi, social networks, and digital identity systems, the future shape of Web3 could undergo significant changes. In this context, blockchain is no longer just a transparent financial ledger but a digital infrastructure that ensures security and trust while protecting personal privacy. In a way, this is the future envisioned by cryptographers thirty years ago. And now, Ethereum is striving to realize this ideal.