The larger question is, what is it about the cypherpunk worldview which is so wrong? Why do cypherpunks constantly predict events which don't come true? And is this faulty vision responsible for the failure of

The most crippling error of the cypherpunks has been their unremitting

Another mistake has been to view the world in simplistic terms of black and white, true patriots versus those who "need killin'". Government in this view is a monolithic entity with the single-minded goal of destroying individual rights and creating a tyrannical dictatorship. Society is composed of "sheeple" who are ignorant of their own best interests and easily manipulated by those in power. This view ignores

And of course much energy has been wasted in internal debate and rhetoric which, because founded on these erroneous points, has been useless and irrelevant. It's easier to moan and complain when bad things happen

At 02:00 AM 11/18/2001 +0100, Nomen Nescio wrote: the cypherpunks to maintain their cultural and technological influence, and to make progress towards their goals? pessimism. Ever since the group was created they have predicted imminent crackdowns on cryptography. And yet the trend has consistently been in the opposite direction. Rather than keeping to an optimistic vision of a better world, cypherpunks have sunk into a morass of doomsaying. The Y2K debacle was perhaps the most prominent example of failed pessimism. Why work on crypto if the world is coming to an end? You're way off base. Many CP on and off this list have attempted, some to a relatively creditable degree, to create technologies (many open source) or launch ventures consistent with CP goals. the complex nature of political and corporate influence and the many competing groups which vie for power in the world. It emphasizes that to keep one's civil rights in the face of those who would trade them away, it may sometimes be necessary to temper their ignorance, greed, or other self interest with the specter of personal consequences untempered by law. than to adopt a positive view of the world and work in an optimistic way to make it happen.

Meanwhile the most interesting technological changes are passing the cypherpunks by. The open source movement, peer to peer exchange, the music and copyright wars, all have had little impact in the cypherpunk world. Peer to peer technology alone has tremendous potential as a foundation for long-term cypherpunk dreams like anonymizing proxies, encrypted data sharing, eternity, even DC nets.

Again you appear to be ignorant of the many CPs (Adam Back, Adam Shostack, Ian Goldberg, Ian Grigg, Doug Barnes, Sameer Parekh, Marc Bracino, Jim McCoy, and many others) who have contributed heavily in these areas. As Tim says read the archives. Its all there. While it may be true that some were too early and somewhat idealistic I expect that their efforts will directly or indirectly encourage others to take up the banner and push on to success.