Assassination Politics

Assassination Politics is a controversial concept proposed by crypto-anarchist Jim Bell in a 1995-96 essay series that describes a system for anonymously crowdfunding political assassinations using cryptography and digital cash. The system proposed combining prediction markets with anonymous payment systems to create what Bell argued would be a tool for enforcing political accountability, though the concept has been widely criticized on both ethical and practical grounds.

The theoretical system would work by allowing people to anonymously contribute funds to predict when a given person would die, with the correct predictor receiving the pool of money - effectively creating a bounty system. Bell argued this would create a form of "insurance" against political corruption and abuse of power, as politicians would be deterred from acting against the public interest by the threat of assassination. The concept gained renewed attention with the emergence of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that could potentially enable such anonymous payment systems.

While primarily a thought experiment exploring the implications of strong cryptography and anonymous digital cash, Assassination Politics remains highly controversial and has been criticized for promoting violence and potentially enabling terrorism. The concept has influenced discussions around crypto-anarchism, digital privacy, and the societal implications of anonymous payment systems, though most crypto-anarchists and cypherpunks distance themselves from its more extreme conclusions.