In this Nov. 4, 2019, file photo, former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden addresses attendees through video link at the Web Summit technology conference in Lisbon. (AP Photo/Armando Franca, File)
Edward Snowden, a former U.S. National Security Agency and CIA contractor-turned whistleblower, on Thursday criticized what he called bitcoin's lack of privacy protections.
He said that the growth of cryptocurrency exchanges, financial services, and other applications mediating the crypto-economy have jeopardized bitcoin's ability to serve as a pure peer-to-peer currency.
"You have to make the idea that cryptocurrency is private by design," he said.
The privacy advocate, who currently lives in Russia and is wanted by the United States government for leaking classified documents and stealing government property, spoke at Decrypt's Ethereal Summit, a virtual conference for blockchain investors, technologists, and entrepreneurs.
Snowden commended so-called "privacy coins" such as Monero and Zcash, which allow for fully anonymous transactions but have struggled to gain legitimacy.
The longer core developers wait to address this, he added, the harder it will be, stressing that leaders in the space need to commit to privacy now, even as they benefit financially from the current system.
"The problem with the cryptocurrency space at the largest scale today is the people who make these decisions have the biggest stake in the system, and the system has benefited from the fact that it has not been regulated out of existence," he said.
In other words, as governments look to regulate cryptocurrencies — a fundamental red line for those who see decentralization as the whole point of alternative digital currencies — there will be an incentive among power brokers in the space, such as crypto-exchanges, to cooperate with new regulatory restrictions, even if they compromise users' privacy.
"The idea of the bitcoin protocol — the peer-to-peer, electronic hash system — is the idea that we can send these payments to anyone permissionlessly," he said. "This is true if it's in your wallet. But how do people fill their wallets? They get it through exchanges, and these guys are imposing permissioning steps that are intermediately to your transaction."
Snowden called for a kind of "purification" that would remove identification information from the cryptocurrency economy.
Speaking to an audience of decentralized finance developers and entrepreneurs, he added that "getting rich and doing something great are distinct goals."
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
