Arjen Kamphuis arrives at London Real studios bespectacled, dressed in black, sporting long-flowing Metallica hair and a Dutch accent. He reminds me of a friend of mine from 7th Grade in San Diego who played Dungeons and Dragons by day, coded Fortran by night, and played chess blindfolded for kicks. I’m pretty certain this will be a fun show.
It’s hard to put a label on Arjen which is why I went with the cop-out title “Hacktivist”, whatever the hell that means. On one hand Arjen is technically brilliant, able to understand the minutia of high level cryptography. On the other hand he has a unique perspective on the global implications of privacy and the revelations of Edward Snowden.
To top it all off he has a technical understanding of Bitcoin which is refreshing to hear since mostLondon Real guests approach it from a finance perspective. No offence Max Keiser! ha ha.
But his greatest asset is easily his personality. He’s a genuine, thoughtful, warm-hearted guy who is trying to get his message out there to the masses. With a partner like Annie Machon (another extremely awesome person) I expect these two to keep challenging both our governments and us citizens to deeply consider the impact of privacy and its effects on our human rights.
compiled by @zander-bylund.
