Snowden and Bitcoin: Collision of the Soul of Freedom

I believe that everyone's circle of friends today is being screened by a message from the other side of the ocean.

“Snowden appeared at the 2019 Bitcoin Summit and talked about privacy issues with David Bailey.”

Although Snowden can only "attend" the conference by means of connection due to personal freedom, this is enough to make the encryption community boil.

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"It is too exciting to see Snowden appear as if the gods are coming."

"The emergence of Snowden, this is the biggest surprise of the 2019 Bitcoin Summit."

The entire crypto community members instantly became small fans, and they rushed to the circle of friends as they saw idols.

[Snowden, the most famous fugitive in the world]

In 2013, former CIA employee Snowden disclosed the US National Security Agency's secret document on the PRISM surveillance project to the Guardian and the Washington Post, and was immediately wanted by the US government. After the incident broke out, Snowden was excused from being arrested in Hong Kong. He then submitted asylum applications to 27 countries including Russia, China and India. Except for Venezuela and Russia, basically no country is willing to accept this hot potato. He finally chose to go to Russia.

In fact, Snowden can't be called the Great God for the encryption community. He contributed a lot to the development of the encryption community without WikiLeaks' Julian Assange. Assange publicly accepted Bitcoin on his WikiLeaks. Payment, which to a certain extent greatly promoted the development of Bitcoin. Snowden is only at the discussion stage for cryptocurrencies. He recognizes blockchain technology, but he is not a fan of Bitcoin.

[Snowden is not a fan of Bitcoin]

It is true that for the "freedom and privacy" of Snowden, he could not know the cryptocurrency. The design of the cryptocurrency is entirely in line with his imagination of the free world, but he is not a big fan of Bitcoin. He once publicly stated that Bitcoin will eventually die out. In his view, although Bitcoin can satisfy people's freedom of trading to a certain extent, in fact, using Bitcoin for trading, it is still possible to be tracked by the government.

"Openness and transparency are the advantages of Bitcoin, and this is also its flaw. As more and more people begin to focus on personal privacy, this advantage of Bitcoin is untenable." In an interview with the media in 2018 Snowden mentioned the flaws in Bitcoin privacy protection.

This point, as early as October 2018, foreign media has reported that in order to combat money laundering and crime, many governments have been trying to track Bitcoin and other digital currency transactions for a long time. After long-term research, although most cryptocurrencies claim to be anonymous, in fact most cryptocurrencies use pseudonyms to achieve this effect.

In other words, by connecting the transaction to a fixed wallet address and by retaining the public record of every transaction made on the chain, most mainstream currencies, including bitcoin, provide an almost perfect way for governments. To track their financial activities,

The privacy of Monroe, Big Zero, Dash, and other privacy currencies is relatively difficult. At present, it is not possible to study the way to track the privacy of financial transactions. To this end, Japan also mandates that multiple exchanges deal with such privacy coins.

Speaking of this, I believe many people have guessed what Snowden's favorite cryptocurrency is. Snowden, who is extremely pursuing privacy protection, has publicly expressed his interest in Zcash more than once.

In his view, Zcash is able to offer a completely private transaction that keeps the cryptocurrency as anonymous as cash. This is unique among many cryptocurrencies, and it provides excellent protection for users' privacy.

Of course, not having a cold on Bitcoin does not affect the love of the encryption community. There was Snowden after Assange. In the eyes of the mainstream world, the behavior of these two people is not glorious and lacks the minimum patriotism.

In theory, a person who is not patriotic, even deceives the motherland and betray the motherland is a very spoiled thing in his own country and in the world.

But why in the real world, they can get the support of thousands of people, why the encryption community has a natural affection for such people.

Because of freedom.

The closest connection between Snowden and Bitcoin is not his evaluation of Bitcoin, nor is he using bitcoin to buy encrypted chat software when he broke the NSA surveillance incident in 13 years, but he has "freedom" with Bitcoin. soul".

As he stated in the Bitcoin Summit in 2019, “Bitcoin is so magical to most of us because it represents the future of civil liberties in this era of surveillance.”

[Free Warriors and the Source of Freedom]

After the Prism Gate incident, Snowden was crowned "Free Warrior" and opened his legendary life.

In Snowden’s own words, the reason why he did not hesitate to carry the nickname of the “traitor” was to expose the US secret surveillance project because it was really dissatisfied with living in a monitoring environment. No matter whether it is clothing, food, shelter, or life, every move is monitored. Such a society is like a big prison. Everyone in this prison has no freedom and no privacy. Each of us is an independent individual. In the era of surveillance, we must live with care. This is not a free and fair world.

Even today, even if forced to live a rebellious life, Snowden still believes that "we can live in a world where privacy is a priority, and maintaining privacy and freedom needs to be a right."

The birth of Bitcoin is not due to Nakamoto's desire for freedom. In the past, people traded, transferred, and stored, all under the supervision of third-party organizations. When you need to send money abroad, you need more. The assistance of the middleman can be realized. In the process, each intermediary can review, monitor and profit. In the event of a problem in one of the intermediate links, there is a risk of being frozen for a long time. In other words, people have limited control over their own money.

In contrast, Bitcoin, who owns the private key of the wallet address, has full freedom of control over it. You are doing cross-border transfers, making purchases, transferring funds, not having to go through a third-party agency, without cumbersome review procedures, or even knowing the other person's name, you can do it anytime, anywhere.

Some people think that the freedom offered by Bitcoin is not good for them.

However, for those in a turbulent political situation, the freedom provided by Bitcoin is their lifeline.

In Venezuela, in Argentina, in Zimbabwe, among the high-inflation countries we don't know, there are countless people who suffer from inflation due to problems such as political turmoil in the country, unrestricted currency issuance by the government, and financial system collapse.

In the 12 months of November last year, Venezuela’s annual inflation rate reached 1.3 million. Continued hyperinflation has forced local people to abandon the French currency Bolivar. In their view, it continues to hold the French currency Bolivar. A financial suicide.

For many years, the Venezuelan government has insisted on currency exchange control and restricted local freedom to enter the international market. In addition, the United States has been using sanctions as a policy tool for dealing with Venezuelan government and individual activities for more than a decade. Even in the case of artificially manipulated government exchange rates, Venezuela’s banks are not used for remittances, payments or donations.

Their money has become worthless. They can't use it to buy basic household items. They can only queue up to receive the quantitative supplies and medicines provided by the government. Countless people watched their life savings completely disappear. And not helpless.

Bitcoin has become a straw for local residents, and this is a new type of currency that does not require bank accounts, does not have to worry about economic sanctions, and is free to circulate around the world. Today, Venezuelans are very keen on using cryptocurrencies, and Bitcoin has become their best tool against hyperinflation and strict economic controls.

Holding Bitcoin is not only safer than the French currency, but also fast. They can use Bitcoin to quickly transfer money to relatives who flee overseas. They don't have to worry about US economic sanctions, and don't worry that their savings become worthless.

As long as they have a network, they are free to trade around the world and circulate unbounded.

Freedom is the soul of Snowden, and it is also the soul of Bitcoin.

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