Cypherpunk 101 Curriculum

12 weeks. Zero to crypto-capable. All hands-on.

Current Status: Week 1 is live. Start now. New weeks release as completed.

📚 Course Overview

Total Duration: 12 weeks
Time Commitment: 4-6 hours per week
Skill Level: Beginner-friendly (basic Linux CLI knowledge required)
Cost: Free forever
Format: Self-paced, hands-on labs

Week-by-Week Breakdown

✅ Week 1: Cypherpunk Ideals & Threat Modeling

Status: 🟢 Available Now | Difficulty: Beginner | Time: 4-5 hours

What You’ll Learn:

The cypherpunk manifesto and philosophy
Why privacy matters in the digital age
Building your personal threat model
Setting up a secure development environment
Understanding adversaries and attack vectors

What You’ll Build:

Your personal threat model document
Secure Linux workspace

→ Start Week 1

🔜 Week 2: Cryptography Fundamentals

Status: 🔵 Coming Soon | Difficulty: Beginner | Estimated Time: 5-6 hours Prerequisites: Week 1 completed

What You’ll Learn:

Symmetric vs. asymmetric encryption
Hash functions and their properties
Entropy and randomness
How encryption algorithms actually work
Common crypto primitives (AES, RSA, SHA-256)

What You’ll Build:

Hands-on encryption/decryption exercises
Hash verification workflows

🔜 Week 3: GnuPG Basics

Status: 🔵 Coming Soon | Difficulty: Beginner | Estimated Time: 5-6 hours Prerequisites: Week 2 completed

What You’ll Learn:

GPG keypair generation and management
Encrypting and decrypting files
Digital signatures and verification
Web of trust concepts
Key servers and distribution

What You’ll Build:

Your first GPG keypair
Encrypted file workflows
Signed messages

🔜 Week 4: Secure Communications

Status: 🔵 Coming Soon | Difficulty: Intermediate | Estimated Time: 5-6 hours Prerequisites: Week 3 completed

What You’ll Learn:

Email encryption with GPG
Secure messaging (Signal, Element/Matrix)
Metadata and what it reveals
Forward secrecy and perfect forward secrecy
Communication protocol analysis

What You’ll Build:

Encrypted email setup
Secure messaging configurations
Metadata minimization strategies

🔜 Week 5: Filesystem & Disk Encryption

Status: 🔵 Coming Soon | Difficulty: Intermediate | Estimated Time: 5-6 hours Prerequisites: Week 4 completed

What You’ll Learn:

Encrypted filesystems (gocryptfs, eCryptfs)
Full disk encryption (LUKS)
Encrypted backups
Key management strategies
Data-at-rest protection

What You’ll Build:

Encrypted filesystem for sensitive data
Automated encrypted backup system

🔜 Week 6: Networking & Anonymity

Status: 🔵 Coming Soon | Difficulty: Intermediate | Estimated Time: 6 hours Prerequisites: Week 5 completed

What You’ll Learn:

Tor network architecture and usage
VPNs vs. Tor (when to use each)
DNS privacy and DNS-over-HTTPS
Network traffic analysis
Correlation attacks and defenses

What You’ll Build:

Properly configured Tor setup
Privacy-respecting DNS configuration
Network traffic routing strategies

🔜 Week 7: SSH & Secure Shell Habits

Status: 🔵 Coming Soon | Difficulty: Intermediate | Estimated Time: 5 hours Prerequisites: Week 6 completed

What You’ll Learn:

SSH key authentication
SSH tunnels and port forwarding
Jump boxes and bastion hosts
SSH hardening and best practices
Certificate-based SSH authentication

What You’ll Build:

SSH key infrastructure
Secure remote access setup
Tunneled connections

🔜 Week 8: Identity Hygiene

Status: 🔵 Coming Soon | Difficulty: Intermediate | Estimated Time: 5-6 hours Prerequisites: Week 7 completed

What You’ll Learn:

Operational security (OpSec) principles
Digital identity compartmentalization
Virtual machines for isolation
Browser fingerprinting and defenses
OSINT awareness (what others can find about you)

What You’ll Build:

Compartmentalized identity strategy
VM-based isolation setup
Privacy-hardened browser configurations

🔜 Week 9: Automation & Scripting

Status: 🔵 Coming Soon | Difficulty: Intermediate | Estimated Time: 6 hours Prerequisites: Week 8 completed

What You’ll Learn:

Automating encryption workflows
Cron jobs and systemd timers
Bash scripting for security tasks
Encrypted log management
Secure backup automation

What You’ll Build:

Automated encrypted backup scripts
Security monitoring scripts
Workflow automation tools

🔜 Week 10: Real-World Projects

Status: 🔵 Coming Soon | Difficulty: Advanced | Estimated Time: 6-8 hours Prerequisites: Weeks 1-9 completed

What You’ll Learn:

Combining all previous weeks’ skills
End-to-end encrypted workflows
Building privacy-respecting systems
Threat model implementation
Security architecture design

What You’ll Build:

Complete encrypted communication system
Personal privacy infrastructure
Real-world project of your choice

🔜 Week 11: Distributed Systems

Status: 🔵 Coming Soon | Difficulty: Advanced | Estimated Time: 6 hours Prerequisites: Week 10 completed

What You’ll Learn:

Decentralized systems and consensus
Distributed hash tables (DHTs)
Peer-to-peer networking
Blockchain basics (the tech, not the hype)
Censorship-resistant architectures

What You’ll Build:

P2P application exploration
Decentralized system analysis

🔜 Week 12: Advanced Protocols

Status: 🔵 Coming Soon | Difficulty: Advanced | Estimated Time: 6-8 hours Prerequisites: Week 11 completed

What You’ll Learn:

Advanced cryptographic protocols
Multi-party computation concepts
Secure multi-party communication
Protocol design and analysis
Cryptographic best practices

What You’ll Build:

Advanced encrypted communication setups
Protocol implementation analysis
Your complete cypherpunk toolkit

🎓 After Completion

Once you’ve mastered Cypherpunk 101, explore:

Privacy 101 (Week 1 live now!) - Beginner-friendly, GUI-first privacy fundamentals
Advanced Cypherpunk (coming later) - Post-quantum crypto, zero-knowledge proofs, advanced protocols

📊 Learning Path

Week 1-3:  Foundations (philosophy, crypto, GPG)
           ↓
Week 4-5:  Secure everything (communications, storage)
           ↓
Week 6-8:  Network like a ghost (Tor, SSH, identity)
           ↓
Week 9-10: Automate and integrate (scripting, projects)
           ↓
Week 11-12: Advanced concepts (distributed systems, protocols)

🚀 Ready to Begin?

→ Start Week 1: Cypherpunk Ideals & Threat Modeling

💬 Questions or Feedback?

Found an error? Report it here (GitHub Issues coming soon)
Need help? Questions answered as community grows
Want updates? New weeks are announced as they release

← Back to Home

Week 1a: Cypherpunk Philosophy & The Manifesto

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.” – Eric Hughes, A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto (1993) ...

Week 1b: Threat Modeling & Environment Setup

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. ...

Week 1c: Journal, Culture & Course Overview

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) ...

Cypherpunk 101 Curriculum#

📚 Course Overview#

Week-by-Week Breakdown#

✅ Week 1: Cypherpunk Ideals & Threat Modeling#

🔜 Week 2: Cryptography Fundamentals#

🔜 Week 3: GnuPG Basics#

🔜 Week 4: Secure Communications#

🔜 Week 5: Filesystem & Disk Encryption#

🔜 Week 6: Networking & Anonymity#

🔜 Week 7: SSH & Secure Shell Habits#

🔜 Week 8: Identity Hygiene#

🔜 Week 9: Automation & Scripting#

🔜 Week 10: Real-World Projects#

🔜 Week 11: Distributed Systems#

🔜 Week 12: Advanced Protocols#

🎓 After Completion#

📊 Learning Path#

🚀 Ready to Begin?#

💬 Questions or Feedback?#

Cypherpunk 101 Curriculum

📚 Course Overview

Week-by-Week Breakdown

✅ Week 1: Cypherpunk Ideals & Threat Modeling

🔜 Week 2: Cryptography Fundamentals

🔜 Week 3: GnuPG Basics

🔜 Week 4: Secure Communications

🔜 Week 5: Filesystem & Disk Encryption

🔜 Week 6: Networking & Anonymity

🔜 Week 7: SSH & Secure Shell Habits

🔜 Week 8: Identity Hygiene

🔜 Week 9: Automation & Scripting

🔜 Week 10: Real-World Projects

🔜 Week 11: Distributed Systems

🔜 Week 12: Advanced Protocols

🎓 After Completion

📊 Learning Path

🚀 Ready to Begin?

💬 Questions or Feedback?