Thread by @ZKPanther

Human beings always had two inherent needs −

1️⃣ To communicate and share information
2️⃣ To communicate selectively.

Thus, the rise of #cryptography.

Origins of cryptography – a thread 🧵

The word ‘cryptography’ was coined by combining two Greek words, ‘Krypto’ meaning hidden and ‘graphene’ meaning writing.

Cryptography can be defined as the art and science of concealing the messages to introduce secrecy in information.

The art of cryptography is considered to be born along with the art of writing.

As civilizations evolved & human beings got organized, the ideas of power, politics & secrecy emerged.

These ideas further fueled the natural need of people to communicate #privately.

Two inherent needs of humans – gave rise to the art of coding the messages in such a way that only the intended receivers could decode the information.

Unauthorized people could not extract any information, even if the scrambled messages fell in their hands.

We can attest to this thanks to findings in #Roman and #Egyptian civilizations.

The first known evidence of cryptography can be traced to the use of hieroglyphs.

Some 4000 years ago, the Egyptians used to communicate by messages written in hieroglyphs.

Hieroglyph − The Oldest Cryptographic Technique

This code was the secret known only to the scribes who used to transmit messages on behalf of the kings.

However, it’s worth noting that not all hieroglyphs can be said to be cryptographic.

Later, the cryptography scholars moved on to using simple mono-alphabetic substitution ciphers during 500 to 600 BC.

This involved creating alphabetic messages that could be decoded through a secret rule. You needed to know the rule to retrieve the garbled message.

Another earlier Roman method of cryptography, popularly known as the Caesar Shift Cipher, relies on shifting the letters of a message by an agreed number.

The recipient of a message would shift the letters back by the same number & obtain the original message.

During and after the European Renaissance, various Italian and Papal states led to the rapid proliferation of cryptographic techniques.

Various analysis and attack techniques were researched in this era to break the secret #codes.

Only after the 19th century did cryptography evolve from ad hoc approaches to sophisticated encryption.

In the early 20th century, the invention of mechanical & electromechanical machines, such as the #Enigma rotor machine, provided more advanced means of coding information.

In the 21st century, cryptography is within the reach of common people as it’s used as an underlying support for almost all of our everyday tech

Today, cryptography is used to provide secrecy & integrity to our data, and both to authenticate and add privacy to our communications

When we look at cryptography and its close association with human civilization, we understand that privacy is an innate human need, a fundamental right. Protecting privacy is key to ensuring human dignity, safety, and self-determination.

In crypto nos confídimus!