The scandalous whistleblower behind the significant US intelligence leak, Edward Snowden, took another step into daylight, disclosing himself as one of the six co-founders of the Zcash privacy coin.
The former computer intelligence consultant leaked highly classified data from the National Security Agency back in 2013 before fleeing to Russia, which granted him permanent asylum.
Part of Ceremony
Today Edward Snowden confirmed to be behind the pseudonym of John Dobbertin, one of the six original Zcash privacy coin creators.
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The group of individuals, who call themselves “Ceremony,” formed back in 2016 to create the first units of privacy-preserving digital currency.
Snowden named the team of “trusted academic cryptographers” as one of his reasons for joining Zcash’s inner circle. He further explained why privacy coins are a condition of a free society:
“When we look in cryptocurrencies in general, we generally see cryptographic properties of it being used to make sure it’s fair ledger, but not that it’s been used to ensure that it’s a private ledger.
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Bitcoin quite famously is an open ledger. The problem with that is you can’t have truly free trade unless you have private trade, and you can’t have a free society without free trade,” Snowden stated.
The former intelligence consultant has not revealed his role in Ceremony. He only mentioned that he has nothing to do with the algorithm design and vaguely hinted to more intelligence-related expertise:
“When they [Ceremony] came to this concept that they needed many people in many places all cooperating in the hopes that just one of them might not be compromised, might not work sort of against public interest… I was happy to say ‘Sure, I’ll help,’” Snowden shared in a video produced by a Zcash-related media house.
Suspected for Sanctions Bypassing
Launched back in 2016 as a code derivative of Bitcoin, the Zcash (ZCASH) privacy-preserving coin allows users to create end-to-end encrypted transactions. It uses zero-knowledge proofs and hides financial details from the public eye.
With a $2.1 billion market cap, Zcash is today one of the crypto markets’ leading privacy coins. Zcash recorded significant 114% growth during the first month since Russia invaded Ukraine and global allies punished Putin’s regime with unprecedented economic sanctions.
Privacy coins have long been suspected of being a popular payment method among black markets, regimes, and shady financial actors.
Why Now?
The secret of Edward Snowden being John Dobbertin of Zcash came out after almost six years. As the limitation period looks highly unlikely when talking about cryptocurrency founders, a single question naturally arises: why now?
The answer seems to be hiding in plain sight, as Snowden dropped the informational bomb only in a purely educational video, the one that was produced and published on the newly launched Zcash Media’s YouTube channel.
The newly established production house is dedicated to creating and distributing documentary-style educational content on Zcash and related technologies.
On the Flipside:
- Edward Snowden has faced charges of violating the United States Espionage Act and revealing state secrets, which included details on the US government’s surveillance program.
- Three years after getting asylum in Russia, Snowden was confirmed to have active contacts with Russian intelligence services. The fact came out the same year when the Ceremony members invited Snowden to join the Zcash team.
