Tim May

Timothy C. May was an American physicist and technical writer. At Intel in the late 1970s he identified alpha-particle emission from chip packaging as the cause of soft errors in DRAM, work published in 1979 that changed how memory chips were packaged. He retired from Intel in 1986.

Crypto anarchy

In 1988 May wrote The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto, predicting that public-key cryptography and anonymous networks would let individuals transact and communicate beyond the reach of governments. In 1992 he co-founded the cypherpunks mailing list with Eric Hughes and John Gilmore, and in 1994 compiled The Cyphernomicon, an extensive FAQ on the movement's ideas.

Later life

May withdrew from the list in the 2000s and became critical of the commercialization of cryptocurrency. He died in December 2018 at his home in Corralitos, California.

Timeline

• 1951-12-21Born in San Diego, California.
• 1979Publishes work at Intel identifying alpha particles as the cause of DRAM soft errors.
• 1988Writes 'The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto'.
• 1992-09Co-founds the cypherpunks mailing list with Eric Hughes and John Gilmore.
• 1994Publishes 'The Cyphernomicon'.
• 2018-12-13Dies in Corralitos, California.