Code as Speech: How Cryptography Secured First Amendment Rights

Creators have long battled for the right to express themselves through their chosen mediums—whether painters with brushes or cryptographers with code. The struggle spans millennia, from Phidias, the Greek sculptor imprisoned for his audacious artistry in 430 BC, to Daniel Bernstein, who challenged the U.S. government in a landmark case defending code as protected speech under the First Amendment.

Twenty-six years ago today, Judge Marilyn Patel’s ruling cemented a precedent: source code is a form of expression, not merely functional instruction. This legal victory resonates in cryptocurrency, where decentralized technologies rely on code as both infrastructure and ideological manifesto. The parallels between Bernstein’s fight and crypto’s ethos of permissionless innovation are unmistakable.