This is likely one of the most polemical issues we’ll find in the cypherpunk arena. Do you think murder is fine, under the right circumstances? At least we know that 54 countries think it’s a fair punishment for the most dangerous criminals. Jim Bell, a renowned crypto-anarchist, seems to think it’s justified against hated and corrupted political figures, and that’s how he came up with Assassination Politics (AP) —a would-be private assassination market.
But let’s talk a bit about James Dalton Bell first. He was born in 1958 in Akron, Ohio (US), and later attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he earned a degree in chemistry. After graduating, he worked as an electrical engineer at Intel before starting his own company, SemiDisk Systems, in 1982, which specialized in computer storage devices.
When the company closed in 1992, Bell developed a strong dislike for financial and tax issues —which would prove almost prophetical for him years later. Politically, he leaned toward anarcho-libertarian views and was involved with the Libertarian Party. His growing distrust of government led him to explore bold and controversial ideas, including the concept of a very unique prediction market.
This essay, published in 1996, outlines a controversial idea where people could anonymously contribute money to “predict” the death of specific government officials. It would function by leveraging encryption and digital cash to create a highly secure and anonymous prediction market. Participants would make predictions about the death of a listed target by submitting an encrypted guess, accompanied by a payment in digital cash.
The entire process ensures that neither the organization nor any other party can trace the identity of the predictor or link it to the outcome, effectively safeguarding all parties involved from legal and investigative scrutiny. All of this was hypothetical, though. There wasn’t the proper technology for it back then.
With the advent of smart contracts and cryptocurrencies, such a system could theoretically be implemented more securely today. A smart contract could automatically pay out a reward to someone who successfully predicts a specific event, like the death of a targeted official. The smart contract would ensure that no one needs to know who the predictor is, as the entire process would be automated and anonymous.
A modern attempt to bring Bell’s idea to life was the
The economics author Robert Murphy debated Bell’s proposal in his own essay, titled
However, Murphy also emphasizes the potential societal dangers of AP. If implemented, the system could lead to widespread violence, as it doesn’t limit targets to oppressive politicians but could be used against anyone, including ordinary individuals. This would create a chaotic environment where assassination becomes commonplace, undermining core values of property rights and personal safety that are crucial for a stable society —even for crypto-anarchists.
In essence, Murphy contends that even if technical challenges were addressed, AP's ideological implications make it a perilous idea. He believes that its adoption could lead to the downfall of modern civilization and contradict the libertarian principles of a just and free society, as it would foster a world where violence and insecurity overshadow respect for individual rights.
As anyone could imagine, this essay put Bell on the radar of the authorities. Following an investigation by the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in 1997, Bell faced charges of tax evasion and misuse of Social Security numbers, leading to an 11-month prison sentence. After his release in 2000, Bell claimed widespread government corruption in his case, initiating a lawsuit in 2003, which triggered further legal complications. He was rearrested on charges of harassment and stalking of federal agents, resulting in a decade-long imprisonment.
Bell's subsequent lawsuits
Bell was eventually released in March 2012. All these issues haven’t stopped his AP activities however. In 2017, he announced the “
Assassination Politics was frequently discussed by cypherpunks,
Prediction markets in crypto are like online betting pools where people place bets on the outcomes of future events using cryptocurrency. Imagine a marketplace where you can wager on (non-deadly) things like election candidates, football results, or price breakthroughs. Participants buy and sell shares or tokens linked to different outcomes, and the prices of these shares reflect the collective predictions of the market. The idea is that the wisdom of the crowd can provide accurate forecasts, while the platform provides rewards to its users.
Common bets on Prophet include price predictions and football games, and the whole process eliminates middlemen. Maybe it’s not quite like what Bell had in mind, but we can still bet privately for a whole world of possibilities.