Edward Snowden said that Bitcoin’s value goes far beyond its actual price. A former analyst for American intelligence agencies called on the community to shift attention from the dynamics of the Bitcoin exchange rate, charts and candles, and focus on studying the features of using the network itself.
Snowden noted that Bitcoin is not anonymous enough. Drawing a parallel with the leak of NSA documents in 2013, he said that he used bitcoins to cover the costs of servers. The transaction trail remained visible, indicating the limited capabilities of “masking” cryptocurrency transactions. This means the government could track them.
Snowden also expressed concern about Bitcoin ETFs, which he believes are “taming” the nature of the cryptocurrency. The use of Bitcoin by large financial institutions can be a catalyst for growth, but it can also cause harm, the ex-CIA employee is sure. He explained that institutions have disproportionate power, eclipsing the influence of ordinary users on the network.
“Cryptocurrency ETFs may inadvertently domesticate Bitcoin, weakening its spirit of freedom. The developers’ priority should be to increase Bitcoin’s anonymity. This will bring Bitcoin back to the original vision of its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto,” Snowden said.
Last year, Snowden said he saw value in buying Bitcoin through decentralized exchanges. He also criticized Coinbase, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, for being overly compliant with regulators at the expense of customers.
Source: Bits
I am an experienced journalist, writer, and editor with a passion for finance and business news. I have been working in the journalism field for over 6 years, covering a variety of topics from finance to technology. As an author at World Stock Market, I specialize in finance business-related topics.
