The Cypherpunk manifesto was released by Eric Hughes

On March 9, 1993, Eric Hughes, a mathematician and cryptographer, released a seminal document that would come to have a profound influence on the development of digital privacy and bitcoin: "A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto". This manifesto laid out the principles of the cypherpunk movement, advocating for the widespread use of strong cryptography as a route to social and political change.

The manifesto emphasized privacy as a fundamental right in the electronic age, distinguishing it from secrecy. It argued that privacy is the power to selectively reveal oneself to the world and that this selective revelation is essential for an open society. Hughes called for the creation of systems that would allow for anonymous transactions, ensuring that individuals could maintain their privacy online.
 

The principles outlined in the manifesto resonated deeply with the creators and early adopters of Bitcoin. Bitcoin, which emerged in 2009, was built on the idea of creating a decentralized financial system that provided users with anonymity and security. Bitcoin’s reliance on cryptographic principles for transaction verification and its decentralized nature aligned closely with the cypherpunk vision of an open society where individuals could communicate and transact privately, free from surveillance and control by centralized authorities.