Take Back Your Digital Privacy#
Stop trusting Big Tech with your data. Start protecting it yourself.
In 12 weeks, you’ll go from privacy-curious to crypto-capable—mastering the same tools cypherpunks use to resist surveillance, protect communications, and maintain digital sovereignty.
Zero fluff. All terminal. Completely free.
→ Start Week 1 Now
You Don’t Need a Computer Science Degree#
You just need:
- A Linux terminal (or WSL on Windows)
- Basic command-line comfort
- 4-6 hours per week
- A desire to own your digital life
Everything else? We’ll teach you.
What You’ll Actually Build#
This isn’t theory. Every week, you’ll master practical tools:
Weeks 1-3: Foundations#
- Build your personal threat model
- Master GPG encryption and digital signatures
- Understand crypto primitives (not crypto-currency—cryptography)
Weeks 4-5: Secure Everything#
- Encrypt your communications (email, messaging, metadata)
- Build encrypted filesystems and backups
- Actually use PGP in real life
Weeks 6-8: Network Like a Ghost#
- Route traffic through Tor properly
- Set up SSH tunnels and jump boxes
- Compartmentalize your digital identities
Weeks 9-10: Automate Your Security#
- Script encrypted workflows
- Build real-world privacy projects
- Combine everything you’ve learned
Weeks 11-12: Advanced Topics#
- Distributed systems and decentralization
- Cryptographic protocols in practice
How This Works (Iterative Release)#
Week 1 is available now. You can start today.
New weeks release as they’re completed—battle-tested through personal walkthroughs, refined with real screenshots, polished for clarity.
Why? Because delivering value now beats perfecting everything later. You start learning immediately. We improve iteratively based on real feedback.
See Full Curriculum →
Who This Is For#
✅ You’re perfect for this if you:
- Want to actually use encryption, not just read about it
- Are tired of privacy theater and want real skills
- Prefer terminal > GUI
- Believe privacy is a right, not a privilege
- Want to build things, not just study them
❌ This probably isn’t for you if:
- You want a passive video course (this is hands-on labs)
- You’re looking for cryptocurrency trading advice (wrong crypto)
- You need hand-holding on basic Linux concepts
- You expect enterprise certifications (this is practical skills)
The Cypherpunk Philosophy#
“Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age. Privacy is not secrecy… Privacy is the power to selectively reveal oneself to the world.”
— Eric Hughes, A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto (1993)
Cypherpunks write code. We believe:
- Privacy is a human right, not a product to buy
- Cryptography liberates, surveillance oppresses
- Open source enables trust, closed source demands it
- Math protects better than laws ever will
This course teaches you to be a cypherpunk—not just read about them.
Start Now (It’s Free)#
Week 1 is live. Week 2 is coming soon. All 12 weeks will be free forever.
No signup required. No email list. No paywall. Just start.
→ Begin Week 1: Cypherpunk Ideals & Threat Modeling
Questions?#
“Is this really free?”
Yes. Core courses (Cypherpunk 101, Privacy 101) are always free. We may offer advanced courses or guided cohorts later, but foundational skills stay free.
“Do I need to know programming?”
Basic terminal comfort helps, but we’re not writing code. We’re using powerful tools via command line. If you can cd, ls, and grep, you’re ready.
“How long until I can actually use this stuff?”
Week 1 gives you a threat model framework you’ll use immediately. Week 3 teaches GPG—you’ll encrypt your first message that day. Every week has practical output.
“What if I get stuck?”
Report issues here or email us. As the community grows, we’ll add discussion forums.
Additional Courses:
- Privacy 101 — Week 1 live now! (beginner-friendly, GUI-first privacy fundamentals)
- Advanced Cypherpunk — Coming later (post-quantum crypto, zero-knowledge proofs, advanced protocols)
Start Week 1 →
🎯 Goal Learn how to protect local data at rest using encrypted filesystems and containers. Explore tools like LUKS, cryptsetup, gocryptfs, and veracrypt, and practice encrypting backups using tar and rsync over SSH.
1. Why Encrypt Data at Rest? Prevent access if your device is lost, stolen, or seized Protect sensitive logs, identity files, password stores Essential for laptops, USB drives, and backups 2. Full-Disk and Partition Encryption with LUKS What Is LUKS? Standard for Linux disk encryption Uses cryptsetup to manage encrypted partitions Key benefits: strong encryption, passphrase support, keyslots WARNING The following examples will erase data. Only do this on test devices or virtual machines.
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🎯 Goal Master SSH for secure remote access, authentication hardening, port forwarding, and tunneling. Learn to configure SSH servers securely, use key-based authentication, and leverage SSH tunnels for accessing internal networks.
1. SSH Fundamentals & Key-Based Authentication Why SSH Keys Over Passwords? Passwords are weak:
Vulnerable to brute force attacks Can be keylogged or phished Easily forgotten or reused SSH keys are strong:
4096-bit RSA or ed25519 provide cryptographic security Private key never leaves your machine Cannot be brute forced in reasonable time Generate an SSH Key Pair Recommended: Ed25519 (modern, fast, secure)
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Goal Understand the ethos, purpose, and mindset of a cypherpunk. Learn why privacy matters in the digital age and why “cypherpunks write code.”
Prerequisites: Basic Linux CLI familiarity
This is Part 1 of 3 - Covers philosophy, history, and the manifesto.
1. What Is a Cypherpunk? “Privacy is necessary for an open society in the electronic age. Privacy is not secrecy. A private matter is something one doesn’t want the whole world to know, but a secret matter is something one doesn’t want anybody to know. Privacy is the power to selectively reveal oneself to the world.”
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Goal Create your personal threat model identifying what you’re protecting and from whom, then set up your secure development environment for the rest of the course.
Prerequisites: Week 1a (Cypherpunk Philosophy)
This is Part 2 of 3 - Covers threat modeling and environment setup.
1. What Is Threat Modeling? Threat modeling is the process of identifying what you need to protect, who you’re protecting it from, and how you’ll defend it.
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Goal Start your learning journal, discover cypherpunk culture and resources, and set clear expectations for success in this course.
Prerequisites: Week 1b (Threat Modeling & Environment Setup)
This is Part 3 of 3 - Covers journaling, culture, and course roadmap.
1. Start Your Learning Journal Create Your Journal cd ~/cypherpunk-journal nano journal.md First entry template:
# Cypherpunk School 101 - Learning Journal ## Week 1: Cypherpunk Ideals & Threat Modeling **Date:** [Today's date] ### What I Learned Today - Read *A Cypherpunk's Manifesto* by Eric Hughes - Learned about the cypherpunk movement's history - Created my first threat model - Set up my cypherpunk development environment - Encrypted my first file with GPG ### Key Insights - Privacy is not the same as secrecy - it's selective revelation - Cryptography empowers individuals against powerful institutions - "Cypherpunks write code" - action over talk - My primary threats are [list your Tier 1-3 threats] ### Aha Moments - [What surprised you?] - [What challenged your assumptions?] - [What excited you about this path?] ### Questions for Further Exploration - How does GPG actually work under the hood? - What makes one encryption algorithm stronger than another? - How can I verify if my current tools are actually private? ### Action Items - [ ] Review threat model weekly - [ ] Practice CLI tools daily - [ ] Start Week 2 exercises - [ ] Recommend one cypherpunk tool to a friend ### Personal Reflection [Your thoughts on why privacy matters to you personally] --- Save and close (Ctrl+X, Y, Enter)
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Goal Understand cryptographic hash functions: what they do, how they differ from encryption, why some are broken (MD5), and how to use SHA-256 for file integrity verification.
Prerequisites: Week 1 (Cypherpunk Ideals & Threat Modeling)
This is Part 1 of 3 - Covers hashing fundamentals and integrity verification.
Introduction: Why Cryptography Matters Before we dive into algorithms, let’s understand what we’re building toward:
Cryptography is mathematics applied to privacy. It transforms the abstract right to privacy into concrete protection through proofs, not promises.
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Goal Master symmetric encryption with AES: understand encryption modes (and why ECB is broken), use OpenSSL for file encryption, and learn how Key Derivation Functions transform weak passwords into strong keys.
Prerequisites: Week 2a (Hash Functions)
This is Part 2 of 3 - Covers symmetric encryption and key derivation.
1. Symmetric Encryption: Shared Secrets What Is Symmetric Encryption? Symmetric encryption uses the same key for both encryption and decryption.
Alice Bob | | | "Meet at midnight" + Key123 | |---------> AES Encrypt --------------> | | f8a3b2c1d4e5f6 (ciphertext) | | | | <-------- AES Decrypt <-------------- | | f8a3b2c1d4e5f6 + Key123 | | "Meet at midnight" (plaintext) | Key challenge: How do Alice and Bob agree on “Key123” without anyone else learning it? (Solved in Week 3 with asymmetric crypto)
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Goal Understand entropy and randomness as the foundation of cryptographic security, learn binary encoding (Base64, hex), and combine everything into practical encrypted workflows with best practices.
Prerequisites: Week 2b (Symmetric Encryption)
This is Part 3 of 3 - Covers entropy, encoding, workflows, and best practices.
1. Entropy and Randomness: The Foundation of Security What Is Entropy? Entropy is a measure of unpredictability (randomness).
In cryptography:
High entropy = Truly random, unpredictable Low entropy = Patterns, predictable Why it matters:
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Goal Understand the public-key cryptography revolution and generate your first GPG keypair. This is the foundation for everything else in the course.
Prerequisites: Week 2 (Cryptography Fundamentals)
This is Part 1 of 4 - Covers history, concepts, and key generation.
Introduction: The Public Key Revolution Week 2 taught you symmetric encryption - Alice and Bob share the same secret key. But how do they exchange that key securely?
The problem:
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Goal Master practical GPG operations: understanding your keyring, encrypting files for yourself and others, and creating digital signatures that prove authorship and integrity.
Prerequisites: Week 3a (GPG Introduction & Key Generation)
This is Part 2 of 4 - Covers keyring management, encryption operations, and signatures.
1. Understanding Your GPG Keyring List All Keys # List public keys gpg --list-keys # Output: pub rsa4096 2025-10-14 [SC] [expires: 2027-10-14] ABCD1234ABCD1234ABCD1234ABCD1234ABCD1234 uid [ultimate] Alice Cypherpunk <[email protected]> sub rsa4096 2025-10-14 [E] [expires: 2027-10-14] Key anatomy:
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