on the crypto
Whistleblower and privacy advocate Edward Snowden wrote an editorial outlining a fierce opinion on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Snowden has been very critical of CBDCs, calling them the "newest danger facing the public horizon."
He also claimed that rather than being an innovation, they are a cryptocurrency perversion and crypto-fascist currency.
CBDCs deny users ownership of their money
Although central banks and politicians around the world have supported Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), several critics believe they are no different from centralized databases. Snowden, the former subcontractor to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA), ran his article on Saturday, talking about what he thinks of CBDCs.
A fan of decentralized crypto assets, not CBDCs
The article talked about what Snowden thought CBDCs bring to society. Although Snowden is a fan of decentralized assets and cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and others, he doesn't feel the same way about CBDCs, highlighting his concern when it comes to adopting the technology.
Snowden pointed out that he believes CBDCs are not a digital dollar, unlike what most sources would have you believe. He wrote in the article:
“I'll tell you what a CBDC is NOT - it is NOT, as Wikipedia might tell you, a digital dollar. After all, most dollars are already digital, they exist not as something folded in your wallet, but as an entry in a bank's database, faithfully requested and rendered under the glass of your phone. Nor is a central bank digital currency a state-wide embrace of cryptocurrency, at least not cryptocurrency as virtually everyone in the world who currently uses it understands it. "
Deny users ownership of their assets
Snowden also described CBDCs as a cryptocurrency perversion that was explicitly designed to deny users basic ownership of their money and make the state a part of every transaction.
"Instead, a CBDC is something closer to being a perversion of cryptocurrency, or at least the founding principles and protocols of cryptocurrency: a crypto-fascist currency, an evil twin that entered the books on the opposite day, expressly designed to deny its users the basic ownership of their money and to install the state at the center of every transaction ”.
Snowden concludes his article by stating that people earn their living through their jobs and asked the US government, the Fed and the Treasury if money should be centralized by the state.
"Of all the things that could be centralized and nationalized in this poor man's life, should it really be his money?"
And what do you think of Snowden's words? Do you agree with him or do you think differently about CBDCs? Let us know in the comments below.
