Edward Snowden is a former US NSA employee who rose to global fame for exposing the agency’s malpractice. Since then, the whistleblower has been on the run and he is currently in Russia.
CBDCs
Recently, Snowden has spoken negatively about the idea of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC). Although Snowden has always been hugely pro-crypto, he sees no benefit in this form of cryptocurrencies at all.
CBDCs are a species cryptocurrency, but issued by a central bank. It usually concerns a so-called stablecoin, the value of which is linked to the national currency of a country. The European Central Bank for example, is considering the digital euro and the US Federal Reserve is looking at a digital dollar, or ‘FedCoin’.
According to Snowden, such CBDCs are anything but desirable within the world of crypto. He argues that in this way power is once again in the hands of the central banks and governments of countries. According to Snowden, this goes against everything the crypto ecosystem stands for.
In addition, Snowden believes that the US Federal Reserve can use such a CBDC to arbitrarily influence the savings of the American population. He cites a New York Times article that indicates that the Federal Reserve may set negative interest rates on digital currencies to encourage Americans to spend their money faster.
What is a Central Bank Digital Currency, you ask? Oh, you know: just a “useful policy tool” for casually annihilating the savings of every wage-worker in the country if they don’t spend them fast enough. https://t.co/TAKQCEDcOX
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) Oct 9, 2021
This is totally out of the question, according to Snowden. He even calls the US central bank’s possible CBDC “a crypto-fascist currency.” This is because the state is central to every transaction made with the CBDC of the US central bank.
“A CBDC is a perversion of cryptocurrency, or at least of the principles and protocols that underpin it, purposefully designed to deprive you of the basic possession of your money because the state is at the center of every transaction.”