Cryptocurrencies derive value not as an investment instrument, but as a means of payment. This was stated by former ЦРУ and АНБ employee Edward Snowden at Consensus 2022, according to CoinDesk.
“I use Bitcoin to use it. In 2013 I used the asset for pseudonymous payments for servers. Overall, I am not urging people to invest their money in cryptocurrencies as a technology, and that is what distinguishes me from many other participants in the community,” he said.
Snowden joined the critique of the ‘anti-cryptocurrency’ letter that a group of tech professionals sent to the US Congress in early June to the US Congress. In his view, the authors deliberately misinterpret some theses about the industry.
“The letter is an argument in favour of the status quo. There are many ways to address all of their problems. All signatories of the letter can understand the industry. They certainly should,” he said.
Among the authors of the letter he singled out cryptographer Bruce Schneier. However, he described most of the other signatories as ‘prolific public trolls.’
On his Twitter page Snowden also called gold “a Bitcoin that cannot be sent over the internet.” Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s chief technology officer, replied. He noted that the price-pegged, gold-backed stablecoin XAUT can be transmitted over the network.
#tethergold can.
Also $XAUt / gold are competitors of USD, not #bitcoin— Paolo Ardoino (@paoloardoino) June 11, 2022
In April 2022, Snowden said that played one of the key roles in the launch of the privacy-focused cryptocurrency ZCash.