Edward Snowden has weighed in on the subject of Bitcoin, calling the cryptocurrency, "the most significant monetary advance since the creation of coinage."
The whistleblower turned international fugitive described his opinion as "unpopular but true" in a post on Twitter. Referencing a quote by Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto, Snowden added, "If you don't believe me or don't get it, I don't have time to try to convince you, sorry."
Snowden is a long-term user of Bitcoin. He's previously explained that in 2013, he pseudonymously used BTC to pay for the servers used to host the materials he leaked to journalists.
In 2013, Snowden was charged with espionage by the U.S. government after leaking documents about the NSA's surveillance program to the press. Before he could be arrested, he fled to Russia, seeking asylum. He lives there now in exile.
Last year, in a virtual appearance at the Bitcoin Amsterdam conference, he argued that Bitcoin should be considered in terms of its use as a tool to reshape the world of finance, rather than focusing on its value. "We are all part of a much bigger game, and Bitcoin is one of our strongest levers in that," he said. "The systems that we are influencing, that we are exerting leverage on, payments and finance, will shape what the world of tomorrow looks like."
Snowden has also criticized central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), calling them "cryptofascist" currencies that "deny you the basic ownership of your money." But CBDC opposition has made for strange bedfellows. He's joined by former president Donald Trump, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Going hand-in-hand with his distaste for CBDCs, Snowden has also supported crypto privacy projects. In fact, he had a hand in the creation of privacy coin Zcash. And earlier this year he endorsed the legal defense fund of Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm, who faces money laundering charges relating to the sanctioned coin mixing service.
Edited by Stacy Elliott.