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In 2013, much to the regret of the US government, Edward Snowden dramatically violated US secrecy laws, revealing to the general public the metaphorical junk of confidential NSA documents. As explained in a series of interviews released by his Russian shelter, Snowden believed that the people of the world should not be monitored incessantly, finding it logical to break the ice on the most caged initiatives of the NSA. So, it should not be surprising that Snowden himself is a fan of blockchain and cryptography technologies.
And as such, Snowden has cemented himself as someone who is close and dear to the hearts of irreducible non-traditionalists, anarcho-capitalists and zealot libertarians from all over the world, most of whom are supporters of the blockchain and decentralized cryptographic assets.
Crypto has been shown to make sense
Ever since Snowden escaped to Russia to seek asylum, the world-renowned informer has appeared in numerous interviews and speeches around the world. Bearing in mind that his views on the world are in line with the ethos and the raison d'être of Bitcoin, many have asked the former NSA contractor to talk about his thoughts on blockchain technologies as a whole. . And while he briefly explained his speculations about the subject, through a transcript that outlines a candid blockchain-centric conversation between Edward Snowden and his lawyer, it seems that he knows more than he can let it slip away.
Ben Wizner, the personal lawyer for Snowden, has shamefully asked the controversial figure on the blockchain, underlining that he "does not really understand it". In a long conversation, Snowden broke the base of a blockchain, conferring what makes this new structure of the tick data and, more importantly, the value of the blockchain itself.
Snowden, comparing blockchain to a "new form of database", gave Wizner a single word to exemplify the problem that blockchains solve: trust.
Before the Great Recession of 2008, consumers have blindly thrown capital to centralized banks, presumably due to the fact that they trusted these institutions. But when the crash began, sending millions into a state of financial ruin and ruin, it became palpable that trusting centralized entities with data and money was a risky business. And then, as mentioned by Snowden, the creation of Bitcoin, the first worldwide network of blockchains in good faith. The apparent libertarian has noted:
"Imagine that in place of today's world, where publicly important data is often kept exclusively … it's in a thousand places with a hundred jurisdictions." There is no removal mechanism or another "Let's be evil" button ", and the creation of one requires a global consensus, generally, at least 51% of the network to support the change of rules."
Wizner, taken slightly by surprise by the technical explanation of Snowden, has posed an interesting question to his client, asking him if blockchain technologies can "weaken huge monopolies of the technological platform, like Amazon or Google?"
Snowden, remaining cautiously optimistic about the prospects of this innovation, said that for the "foreseeable future", usurping these giants from their high horses through the blockchain is nothing but "wishful thinking". However, he continued to recognize that "money is, of course, the best and most famous example of where the blockchains have made sense," leading it logically to the Bitcoin topic.
Although he pointed out that cryptocurrencies, and in particular Bitcoin, have "limited fundamental value", Snowden then praised Bitcoin for its scarcity, its resistance to censorship and its boundless nature. However, he tried to call Bitcoin "private money", but rather the world's first "free money", which is valued by the need for transactions without intermediaries.
Keeping in mind his inclination for privacy, Snowden has also raised Monero and ZCash, alluding to his feeling that he prefers the former because Monero is deprived of default.
Although he might expose his opinion that cryptocurrencies should be valid, Snowden's views on the blockchain are not all sunshine and rainbows. Concluding his comments, Snowden told his lawyer that the current Proof of Work (PoW) consent mechanism of Bitcoin is imperfect, adding that these protocols are "destructive and incline the game for the rich", adding that the increase in blockchain can lead to a world that is too transparent, where everything can be traced.
Related reading: No, Bitcoin is not about to melt the planet
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