From Guy Fawkes to Resistance and Cryptos: A Fight for Freedom

Picture this: you go to a protest these days, and you find a lot of people wearing white, bearded masks. Maybe the hacktivist group Anonymous comes to your mind. Maybe V for Vendetta. Maybe even the historical root, Guy Fawkes —a man who died over 400 years ago in old England. But do you know why are they all connected as a symbol of rebellion or even anarchism? Should you wear your own mask too?

Well. Let’s explore this story in chronological order, shall we? If you must know it now, it includes a murder attempt plot, explosives, a dystopian world, and somehow ends up with modern online anarchism and protests worldwide. Cryptos have been in the mix too since they appeared in 2009.

Old Historical Facts

“Remember, remember, the 5th of November, Gunpowder, treason and plot.” This is an English folk rhyme that dates back to the 17th century and has firmly stayed in popular imagery ever since. You see, that century wasn’t catholic-friendly at all in England. In case you didn’t know, there was a thing called European Wars of Religion that went on for centuries.

That was a complex historical event in which numerous realms and parties participated, so we’ll sum it up by saying that the English high powers preferred The Church of England (Anglicanism), a form of Christian Protestantism that was against the Church of Rome and the figure of the Pope. Instead, the English monarch became the Supreme Governor of the church instead of the Pope, and, eventually, they sought to erase Catholicism from England.

As a consequence, harsh religious persecution was put in place. Catholics faced heavy restrictions on practicing their faith, prohibitions against holding public office, fines for not attending Anglican services, and occasional imprisonment or execution for those deemed traitors due to their loyalty to the Pope over the English monarch.

In other words, that was the perfect recipe for a group of Catholic revolutionaries to design a plot to kill and replace the Protestant king and his court.

The 5th of November

A group of conspirators, led by Robert Catesby, sought to assassinate King James I and his government officials in a dramatic explosion by November 5, 1605. They rented a cellar beneath the parliament building and stocked it with 36 barrels of gunpowder, enough to cause massive destruction. The plan unraveled, however, when an anonymous letter, sent days before the event, warned a Catholic member of parliament to stay away from the building.

This prompted a search, and just hours before the planned explosion, authorities found Guy Fawkes, one of Catesby’s associates, guarding the gunpowder and ready to light the wicks. Fawkes was arrested, tortured, and eventually executed, while most of the other conspirators were also caught and met similar fates. The event is known now as the Gunpowder Plot.

Today, November 5th is celebrated as Guy Fawkes Night or Bonfire Night in the UK. People light bonfires, set off fireworks, and sometimes burn effigies of Guy Fawkes or other hated characters to commemorate the failure of the plot and the survival of King James I —who most English people actually liked back then, despite his anti-Catholic posture.

Fictional Facts

So, a little bit disappointing up until now? Let’s fast forward to the 19th century when fiction starts to meddle with the facts. The writer William Harrison Ainsworth published a three-volume romance novel called ‘Guy Fawkes’. This story, published between 1840 and 1841, described a made-up romance between Fawkes and Viviana Radcliffe, a new character, and narrated the journey of the Gunpowder Plot from the summer of 1605 to its tragic end. All while picturing Fawkes as a sort of anti-hero.

It wouldn’t be the last time. That novel was popular in its time, but what would really hit our century would be the comic ‘V for Vendetta’ by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, first published in 1980. Lloyd, indeed, is the author of the Guy Fawkes mask design as we know it. You may also be familiar with the homonymous movie from 2006.

They tell us a dystopian story set in a future Britain under a totalitarian regime. The story follows V, a mysterious vigilante who wears a Guy Fawkes mask and uses his skills to fight against the oppressive government. V’s ultimate goal is to awaken the people to the regime’s injustices and inspire them to reclaim their freedom, using acts of rebellion and symbolism to make his point. He ends up fulfilling the original Fawkes’ goal and blows up the parliament.

The Guy Fawkes mask is central to V’s identity (always hidden otherwise) and symbolizes resistance against tyranny. Just as Fawkes once tried to overthrow a powerful government, V becomes a modern symbol of defiance, using the mask to rally people against oppression while protecting their identities. This symbolism has since been embraced worldwide by activists and movements advocating for freedom and justice.

New Historical Facts

The Guy Fawkes mask became a symbol of protest and defiance in the early 2000s, thanks largely to the online activist group Anonymous. Starting around 2008, members of Anonymous wore the mask during a series of global protests against the Church of Scientology, which they opposed due to its practices and aggressive control of information. The mask allowed activists to protect their identities while presenting a united front against what they saw as corruption and censorship.

In 2011, the mask gained even more visibility with the Occupy Wall Street movement, which protested economic inequality and corporate influence. The Occupy movement spread globally, with protesters in places like New York, London, and Tokyo donning the mask as a statement against social injustice. Julian Assange, a renowned cypherpunk and founder of WikiLeaks, also wore the mask publicly, aligning with the movement and its ideals of transparency and accountability.

Since then, the Guy Fawkes mask has appeared in a range of protests worldwide, from Hong Kong’s pro-democracy demonstrations to anti-austerity marches across Europe. In addition, we must say that a wide lot of these protesters have learned to use cryptocurrencies to protect their funds and data.

Today, the mask remains a powerful, recognizable symbol for those fighting for freedom and against government or corporate control, transcending borders and causes.

A Mask Isn’t Enough

Since the early days of protests by Anonymous and movements like Occupy Wall Street, the Guy Fawkes mask has allowed people to show solidarity while protecting their identities. However, in the current era of advanced surveillance and censorship, simply wearing a mask is no longer enough. According to Freedom House, “Global Internet freedom declined for the 14th consecutive year,” and “Free expression online was imperiled by severe prison terms and escalating violence.”

Financial censorship is also a growing concern. In some countries, governments and institutions limit or freeze funds to silence dissent or restrict people’s access to their money. Cryptocurrencies and decentralized networks offer a way to push back. Due to their peer-to-peer nature, cryptocurrencies allow people to control their own funds and data without relying on central authorities.

This means they can be used as tools for those fighting against inequality or authoritarianism, helping people keep their assets secure and enabling transactions even in restricted environments.

Not all decentralized networks, however, are equally resistant to censorship. Blockchains can be censored and manipulated. Most of them still rely on “validators” or miners, leaving room for censorship and centralization. Obyte stands out as a powerful alternative: its Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) structure is truly decentralized, free from miners, “validators”, or any other middlemen, making it especially resistant to censorship and a good option for people seeking true autonomy.

Featured Image by Ahmed Zayan / Unsplash