Phil Zimmermann and His Contributions to the Cryptocurrency Boom

The 1990s was a decade that will go down in history as an unparalleled era of technological advancement. Though the World Wide Web was created in 1989, it was not until 1990 that the first web browser computer program was written. In August 1991, it was released to the general public on the Internet, and the world was forever changed.

The 90s saw an incredible boom in the internet industry. Amazon was founded in July 1994, eBay in September 1995, and Google three years later in September 1998. Though the Dot Com Bubble took many casualties, these tech giants rose from the ashes as perennial economic heavyweights.

In addition to the internet wave, a lesser known movement began in the 1990s. A group of cryptographers and computer scientists gathered together in late 1992 and called themselves the Cypherpunks, a group dedicated to “ defending [their] privacy with cryptography, with anonymous mail forwarding systems, with digital signatures, and with electronic money.”

The Cypherpunks began a mailing list that served as a forum for technical subjects like mathematics, cryptography, computer science, and political activism. With libertarian and anarchist leanings, the Cypherpunk movement left its mark on society, seen even today. One member, Phil Zimmermann, played a particularly important role in the development of cryptography and privacy promotion.

Phil Zimmermann’s Beginnings and Early Career

Zimmermann was born on February 12, 1954, in Camden, New Jersey. The son of a concrete mixer truck driver, Zimmermann attended Florida Atlantic University where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science. After his graduation in 1978, Zimmermann moved to Boulder, Colorado where he worked at the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign as a policy analyst, in addition to a day job as a software engineer.

Throughout this period, Zimmermann was an anti-nuclear activist and was even arrested with Carl Sagan, Martin Sheen, and 400 others for protesting a Nevada nuclear test site. The protest ended up for naught, as the test had already taken place, but his arrest solidified Zimmermann as a bona fide anti-nuclear protester.

With the Cold War winding down, Zimmermann began to grow increasingly interested in cryptography and its ability to protect private communications both locally and globally. At the beginning of the 1990s, Zimmermann created a software program that would quickly gain worldwide recognition.

The Creation of the Pretty Good Privacy Program

In 1991, Zimmermann created the Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) encryption program. It provides users with cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communication, permitting parties to send confidential messages. Along with the release of the program, Zimmermann noted, “PGP empowers people to take their privacy into their own hands.”

Underpinning its release was Zimmermann’s heartfelt belief that people have the right to maintain privacy over their conversations and interactions, no matter what in the medium they take place. In line with the Cypherpunks’ libertarian views, Zimmermann comments:

When the United States Constitution was framed, the Founding Fathers saw no need to spell out the right to a private conversation explicitly… However, with the coming of the information age, starting with the invention of the telephone, all that has changed. Now, most of our conversations are conducted electronically.

This allows our most intimate conversations to be exposed without our knowledge… Electronic mail, sent across the Internet, is no more secure than cellular phone calls. Email is rapidly replacing postal mail, becoming the norm for everyone, not the novelty it was in the past... Today, email can be routinely and automatically scanned for interesting keywords, on a vast scale, without detection.

From its inception, PGP took off like a rocket. It quickly became a global phenomenon, so much so that Zimmermann was the target of a three-year criminal investigation at the hands of the U.S. government. They argued that PGP violate U.S. export restrictions for cryptographic software, but to no avail. PGP was already the world’s most popular email encryption software, and eventually, the case was dropped with no criminal charges filed.

Zimmermann and PGP’s Impact on Cryptocurrencies

Though Zimmermann was not directly involved in the creation of proto-cryptocurrencies like Digi-Cash or B-money, his philosophical impact on the development of cryptocurrencies should not go unnoticed.

Like other Cypherpunks, Zimmermann firmly believed that the individual’s right to privacy superseded all else regarding the internet and electronic communications. His fight for email encryption and confidential messaging led to the creation of electronic payment systems where messages are encrypted and confidential. He pioneered an email encryption program that paved the way for other computer scientists to apply the same logic to electronic transactions.

In a more practical, tangible way, PGP, Zimmermann’s greatest creation, still plays a vital role in the cryptocurrency community. First, it set the example of how to successfully encrypt messages and send them on a global scale. This is the backbone of today’s blockchain transactions.

Second, PGP’s use of public key cryptography was a model for other cryptographers. Public key encryption is a standard feature in a majority of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin. Its use in email encryption led to its use in securing anonymous, confidential financial transactions.

Third, and perhaps most significantly, PGP technology is used as an encryption system for many cryptocurrency users. PGP key pairs are used to make secure trades in cryptocurrency over-the-counter (OTC) transactions. OpenPGP emails are also used in anonymous, OTC transactions, and some cryptocurrency enthusiasts prefer to use PGP to encrypt their Bitcoin addresses and private keys.

Public cryptocurrency exchanges like Kraken utilize a PGP public key to sign outgoing email correspondence to users. They can import outbound Kraken emails into their compatible email client to verify the authenticity of signed emails from the site. The PGP system thus creates a way for exchanges like Kraken to send secure, confidential messages to their customers without having to worry about interference. This is particularly useful as more government authorities crack down on crypto exchanges.

Without Zimmermann and his work in cryptography, particularly the development of the PGP program, cryptocurrencies would likely be much less advanced. His work streamlined a way for parties to send encrypted emails, ultimately leading to the development of networks that allow users to send encrypted monetary transactions.















