Amir Taaki: The Cypherpunk Who Writes Dark Code —and Went to War

Amir Taaki is one of the earliest developers of Bitcoin. He also went to Syria to fight the Islamic State. Taaki was born in 1988 in London to a Scottish-English mother and Iranian father.

A photo of Amir Taaki lying on a couch with a laptop on top of him is around the Internet. Perhaps a typical programmer image. Another photo of him in military uniform, holding a Kalashnikov assault rifle, is also around. This is the cypherpunk who went to Syria to fight the Islamic State. He’s also one of the earliest developers of Bitcoin, anarchist, and hacktivist.

Taaki wasn’t on the early cypherpunk mailing lists in the 90s, but he’s considered a late cypherpunk with strong ideals. Born in 1988 in London to a Scottish-English mother and Iranian father, he grew up in Kent (UK) with a strong curiosity for ...