Key Figures in Cryptoanarchism: History of Cryptoanarchism: Ethereum Berlin and London upgrades improve network functionality and privacy (2021)

Introduction

Cryptoanarchism is a political and social movement that emphasizes the use of strong cryptography and privacy-enhancing technologies to protect individual freedom, privacy, and autonomy against centralized authorities. Born in the early 1990s among the cypherpunks, this ideology has driven the development of technologies—from PGP and Tor to Bitcoin and Ethereum—that allow individuals to transact, communicate, and organize without intermediaries or surveillance.

Origins and Early History of Cryptoanarchism

The Cypherpunk Mailing List

Founded in late 1992 by Eric Hughes, Timothy C. May, and John Gilmore, the Cypherpunk mailing list became a crucible for ideas about digital privacy, cryptography and civil liberties. Contributors exchanged code, white papers, and political arguments, ultimately setting a philosophical foundation for the movement.

Key Early Figures

Timothy C. May – Author of “The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto” (1988), he argued that cryptography would empower individuals to evade government control.
Eric Hughes – Advocate for “Privacy for the People”, he promoted the notion that privacy is an absolute prerequisite for a free society.
John Gilmore – Co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Gilmore championed digital rights and challenged government overreach in cyberspace.
Julian Assange – Although more widely known for WikiLeaks, Assange’s early writings and activism intersected with cryptoanarchist ideas by exposing state secrets and advocating transparency.

The Transition to Cryptocurrency

In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin whitepaper, demonstrating a practical, decentralized digital cash system. Bitcoin’s success validated many cryptoanarchist principles: permissionless money, censorship resistance, and decentralized trust.

The next wave arrived with Ethereum in 2015, a programmable blockchain platform that extended these principles to decentralized applications (dApps), smart contracts, and on-chain governance. Ethereum’s philosophy resonated strongly with cryptoanarchists seeking to build private, autonomous networks.

Ethereum Berlin Upgrade (April 2021)

The Berlin upgrade (EIP-2565, EIP-2315, EIP-2929, and EIP-2930) went live at block 12,244,000 on April 15, 2021. Its primary goals were:

Optimize gas costs for certain operations
Improve transaction type support with access lists
Lay groundwork for future private-transaction layers

Summary of Major EIPs

EIP	Title	Description
2565	ModExp Gas Cost Reduction	Reduces the cost of modular exponentiation operations, benefiting zk-SNARKs and privacy protocols.
2315	Simple Create2 Factory	Introduces a standard contract template to deploy new contracts deterministically via CREATE2.
2929	Gas Cost Increases for State Access	Adjusts gas costs for SLOAD, BALANCE, and other opcodes to reflect actual resource usage, deterring state-bloat attacks.
2930	Optional Access Lists	Adds a new transaction type that includes a list of addresses and storage keys the transaction intends to access, improving gas predictability and enabling future layer-2 privacy features.

Impact on Functionality and Privacy

Better Gas Predictability: Access lists allow wallets and relayers to estimate gas costs more accurately, reducing failed or over-priced transactions.
Lower zk-Proof Costs: By cutting modular exponentiation fees, Berlin made zero-knowledge rollups and privacy circuits cheaper to use and deploy.
Foundation for Privacy Layers: Access lists presage transaction batching and private-pool mechanisms that hide which contracts are being invoked.

Ethereum London Upgrade (August 2021)

Activated at block 12,965,000 on August 5, 2021, the London upgrade was one of the most anticipated protocol changes in Ethereum history. It addressed fee-market reform, incentive alignment, and delayed the difficulty bomb.

Key EIPs in London

EIP	Title	Description
1559	Fee Market Change	Introduces a base fee per block that is burned, plus a small priority tip to miners. This reforms the auction-style gas market for better UX and deflationary pressure.
3198	BASEFEE Opcode	Adds an opcode to expose the current base fee to smart contracts, enabling on-chain fee logic.
3529	Reduce Refunds	Reduces gas refunds for SELF-DESTRUCT and SSTORE operations to curb abuse and state rent circumvention.
3554	Difficulty Bomb Delay	Pushes back the “Ice Age” of exponentially increasing mining difficulty by approximately four million blocks, preparing the network for the upcoming merge to proof-of-stake.

Functional Improvements

User Experience: With EIP-1559, wallets auto-calculate base fees, reducing user error and failed transactions.
Fee Predictability: Blocks adjust the base fee up or down by a maximum of 12.5% per block, smoothing out gas price volatility.
Deflationary Mechanism: Burning base fees introduces a potential deflationary pressure on ETH supply, aligning holders’ incentives with network security.
Lower MEV Risk: More predictable fee markets shrink the arbitrage space for miners and bots front-running user transactions.

Privacy Enhancements through Protocol Upgrades

While neither Berlin nor London directly implements full privacy features (such as confidential transactions or anonymous state), they lay vital groundwork:

Access Lists (EIP-2930): Enable pre-declared state access, reducing the need for on-chain leaks of touched storage slots and facilitating encrypted transaction bundling.
Gas Cost Adjustments: Making zk-SNARK and other proof costs more economical encourages layer-2 rollups and private channels that can obfuscate transaction details.
On-Chain Fee Logic (EIP-3198): Smart contracts can now react to real-time base fees, enabling adaptive private mixers or fee‐hiding protocols that mask actual gas payments.

Legacy and Future Directions

The Berlin and London upgrades reflect the cryptoanarchist ethos of continuous improvement, decentralization, and privacy. They:

Strengthen user autonomy by making fees transparent and fair.
Enable advanced privacy layers (zk-rollups, private sidechains).
Lay the technical foundation for Ethereum’s transition to Proof of Stake, further reducing centralization pressures.

Looking forward, upcoming EIPs and layer-2 projects aim to integrate covert transaction batching, confidential smart contracts, and decentralized identity—all core aspirations of the cryptoanarchist vision.

Conclusion

From the pioneering thoughts of Timothy May and Eric Hughes to the concrete protocol changes in Ethereum’s Berlin and London upgrades, cryptoanarchism has evolved from manifesto to real-world infrastructure. By improving gas efficiency, enabling access lists, reforming fee markets, and burning base fees, these upgrades not only boost functionality and security but also advance privacy and decentralization. As Ethereum continues its PoS transition and layer-2 expansion, the cryptoanarchist ideal of unassailable digital freedom comes ever closer to reality.

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