Edward Snowden, president of the Freedom of the Press Foundation and a famous whistleblower, deems there is more value in cryptocurrencies in their use than as an investment.
“I use bitcoin to use it. In 2013, bitcoin is what I used to pay for the servers pseudonymously,” said Snowden on Saturday in a virtual appearance at CoinDesk’s Consensus 2022 conference in Austin, Texas. He gained popularity in 2013 after leaking classified information on the National Security Agency’s surveillance of U.S. citizens.
“Generally, I don’t encourage people to put their money in cryptocurrencies as a technology, and this is what distances me from a lot of people in the community,” he further said.
Earlier this month, in a letter to U.S. lawmakers to counter the industry’s lobbying efforts, Snowden also defended the crypto industry in face of criticism by a group of tech experts who knocked cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.
Snowden believes the parties were deliberately misunderstood in the crypto industry.
“The letter is an argument for the status quo,” Snowden said. “There are so many ways to address all of their concerns. All the people who have signed this latter could understand this industry. They certainly should.”
Snowden expressed admiration for cryptographer Bruce Schneier, who was one of the lead signatories of the letter, for his work on cryptography. However, Snowden described many of the people who signed the letter as “prolific public trolls.”
Addressing the current state of privacy on the internet, Snowden said he believes that great progress has been made in encrypting the content of communications, but raised concern about metadata, the records that show communications took place.
Snowden was given asylum in Russia following his leak of espionage and was charged by the U.S. He was then granted permanent residency rights there in 2020.
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