Cypherpunk Values are Dying, but They’re Not Dead Yet

Not long before he died, Grandad said something that I thought was a little silly, a little old-fashioned.

He declared that he didn’t trust the banks, and he didn’t want them to know what he did with his money. I scoffed at the time, paranoid old fella! But of course, it turns out I owe him an apology.

As we were walking around his house, he motioned toward an off-white wall with an off-comfortable sofa in front of it. This piece of singularly ugly furniture hadn’t left its spot in more than a decade.

The wall had a small square door that, when…