Edward Snowden is not a fan of investing in bitcoin. The whistleblower addresses the crowd at Conensus 2022 from a distance about privacy.
Snowden is not a fan of the atmosphere surrounding cryptocurrency and investments: ‘I use bitcoin to use it. In 2013, I paid for servers with bitcoin under a pseudonym.”
His organisation, WikiLeaks, started accepting bitcoin because they no longer had access to the traditional financial system. “In general, I don’t encourage people to put their money into technology like crypto,” Snowden said. According to the American, this ensures that he does not fit into this community.
Criticism
Snowden also discusses the developments in the United States. There is a battle going on between supporters and opponents of bitcoin. This is accompanied by legislative proposals and extensive demonstrations.
21 human rights activists sent a letter with examples of the benefits of bitcoin. WikiLeaks is one example. The organisation is really not a prominent promoter of bitcoin. But in practice it used it as money very early on.
A treasonous fugitive from U.S. justice enjoying Russian asylum from Putin advises how to use crypto, as he did, to pseudonymously commit crimes. Oh, but don't invest in it. This pampered worm triggers my retch reflex. https://t.co/CNIEtmA5h9
— Bob Lewis 🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@BobLewisOfRVA) June 12, 2022
The activists are focusing their sights on the ‘anti-crypto letter’ that was sent to the US Congress. This was reportedly a request from 1,500 computer scientists and engineers not to adopt favourable policies for ‘unproven digital financial instruments’.
“The letter is an argument in favour of the status quo,” Snowden said. “There are so many ways to address all their concerns. All the people who have signed this could understand this industry. They certainly should.”
He has respect for people like Bruce Schneier, he is a signatory but at the same time has been important in the world of cryptography. Many other initiators are just obstructionists and trolls, according to Snowden.
Battle for privacy
Snowden emphasizes that privacy is very important. Especially online. And according to the whistleblower there is much to be gained. Think for example of the encryption of your online communication.
That is only one of the important factors. Snowden: “Think of it as a van with dark windows driving along the motorway. You can’t see who the passengers are, but you can still see where the van left off, where it ended up, how long it took – things like that.”
Snowden thinks we need to make sure no one can see how many and which cars are on the road: “We need to make more transactions the same, so that everyone is driving the same kind of vans and gets lost in the crowd.”
