On October 12-13, 2023, the largest Bitcoin conference in Europe, Bitcoin Amsterdam, took place. The well-known Edward Snowden, a former CIA and NSA employee, and now a technical specialist and crypto analyst, was one of the speakers. Let’s find out what the former American special agent thinks about the world’s first cryptocurrency.

What interesting did Snowden say to the Crypto World?

At the conference, Snowden touched on several topics related to Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies. The main ones are:

• Shifting trends when working with cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin was originally created by Satoshi Nakamoto as a decentralized tool for free, transparent trading. Now more attention is paid to the value of Bitcoin than to its decentralization.

In general, the problem of cryptocurrency decentralization is one of the sides of the so-called blockchain trilemma. Now the best crypto developers in the world are struggling to solve it, trying to ensure that the system comprehensively develops and expands, and does not fold after a decade.

• Issues of cryptocurrencies and their opposition to centralized authorities.

Edward Snowden has become widely known for his anti-government activities, which undermine the authority of the US authorities. At the blockchain conference, he mentioned the pressing issue of cryptocurrency – its relationship with the American government. The regulation problems of crypto are probably the most pressing issue for the Crypto World now.

Snowden also said about the total control of citizens by the authorities, recalled the sensational story of government surveillance and outlined the role of Bitcoin in this whole situation.

In addition, the ex-CIA agent criticized the actions of the SEC and its head Gary Gensler regarding the regulation of crypto assets.

• Lack of “real anonymity” in Bitcoin.

Snowden believes that government authorities interfere too much in decentralized processes and also control all the actions of citizens, as before. With the advent of Bitcoin, people had the idea of an anonymous payment system, which in reality turned out to be an illusion. According to him, governments today are able to monitor the actions of citizens through the transactions they conduct.

• Prospects for the merge of the traditional financial market with the cryptocurrency market

Snowden suggested that the influx of investment from the traditional system could affect the Bitcoin rate. At the same time, the former special agent warned that too large an influx of funds from central banks would negatively affect the decentralization of power in the blockchain system. In his opinion, this will give large institutions “too much power” over crypto assets, which will limit the actions of ordinary users.

Snowden's early statements on cryptocurrencies

The Amsterdam conference was not the only place where the public could hear Edward Snowden's statements regarding cryptocurrencies. A year earlier, at the Consensus conference in Austin, Texas, a specialist promoted the idea of actually using cryptocurrencies instead of investing in them. During the same time period, Snowden compared gold to Bitcoin, that cannot be sent over the Internet, on his X (formarly Twitter) account. 

Snowden's participation in the launch of ZCash

On October 28, 2016, the first open-source cryptocurrency was launched – Zcash (ZEC). Its release provoked an interest in the crypto community. All because Zcash was based on a zero-knowledge proof protocol, which as of 2016 was a huge step in maintaining anonymity. The digital currency provided its users with complete privacy with stable and secure transfers.

In 2022, a video was released on the Zcash Media platform in which Edward Snowden spoke about his participation in the launch of the product.

The essence of the Zcash cryptocurrency technology was the use of a cryptographic key to block the main code. For greater security, the key was divided into 6 parts and distributed among “trusted persons”. One of them was Edward Snowden, then working under the pseudonym John Dobbertin.

Snowden himself noted that he was attracted to Zcash by the “potential for anonymity,” so he agreed to help its developers.

Conclusion

Edward Snowden is a rather provocative figure in the modern centralized world. He is still passionate about the ideas of “liberating” people from totalitarian government control, data anonymity and building a society with free private trade. Actively promoting these thoughts on various platforms available to him, such as blockchain conferences, the former special agent has been gathering around him a community of both like-minded people and opponents for several years now.

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