Edward Snowden – a former National Security Agency (NSA) employee that’s been hiding out in Russia for the past several years – recently emerged to state his opposition to the idea of central bank digital currencies or CBDCs. He stated that these assets pervert everything that cryptocurrency stands for, and that individuals would be foolish to get involved in these currencies.
Edward Snowden Says His Piece on Crypto
In an interview, he mentioned:
A CBDC is a perversion of cryptocurrency, or at least the founding principles and protocols of it. A crypto-fascist currency, expressly designed to deny you the basic ownership of your money by installing the state at the center of every transaction.
To an extent, Snowden undoubtedly has a point. Cryptocurrency was initially designed to give traders and everyday individuals a chance to keep prying eyes and snoops out of their monetary business. When one requires the tools and services of a bank, they are subjecting themselves to third parties who ultimately decide what products and items they can gain access to.
For example, if you were to go out today and seek a new bank account, you would likely have to undergo a background check of some kind. The bank in question would look at your financial past and examine items like your job history and your credit history. It would then use this information to decide about what it could (or couldn’t) do for you.
Crypto, by contrast, is quite the opposite. It doesn’t care who you are, what you’ve done, or where you’re located. So long as you have access to the internet, you can open a digital wallet and begin trading and collecting digital assets. In addition, digital currencies are designed to be decentralized, and if banks get involved, this will not be the case.
Freddie Evans – sales trader at Global Block – explained in a recent statement:
Edward Snowden has added his views on the discussion of Central Bank Digital Currencies. He had some severe criticisms of the hypothetical CBDCs. The Fed could impose a negative interest rate by gradually shrinking the electronic balances in everyone’s digital currency accounts, creating an incentive for consumers to spend and companies to invest. However, many central banks are looking into creating digital currencies with the European Central Bank (ECB) exploring the potential of a digital euro.
China Has Helped Bitcoin in Many Ways
The discussion comes just weeks after Snowden made public comments regarding China’s sudden dismissal of bitcoin and bitcoin mining. Not too long ago, the country announced that bitcoin and crypto miners would be required to set up shop in other regions, while crypto transactions would no longer be allowed within its borders.
All these actions, according to Snowden, ultimately made bitcoin much stronger. He says that the asset is now up by more than 1,000 percent since the heavy correction it experienced in March of 2020.