{"id":70366,"date":"2022-11-21T13:18:28","date_gmt":"2022-11-21T11:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=70366"},"modified":"2025-09-08T01:41:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T22:41:05","slug":"edward-snowden-criticises-coinbase-for-backing-regulation-of-the-crypto-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/edward-snowden-criticises-coinbase-for-backing-regulation-of-the-crypto-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Edward Snowden criticises Coinbase for backing regulation of the crypto industry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A former employee of the National Security Agency (NSA) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States, Edward Snowden, said that Coinbase&#8217;s excessive commitment to regulatory compliance hampers the development of the digital assets industry. This was reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/decrypt.co\/115107\/edward-snowden-calls-coinbase-over-compliance-toxic-and-embarrassing\">Decrypt<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cYou don&#8217;t even manufacture lawn mowers; you sell them, but fine, you popularised the lawn mower \u2014 they are important and valuable. But when I buy a lawn mower, no one asks me for my passport and facial scan,\u201d Snowden explained.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In his view, Coinbase places regulatory compliance above customer privacy, which is considered a foundational principle of cryptocurrencies.<\/p>\n<p>Snowden added that anti-money laundering enforcement is a police matter, not a trading platform. He also called the <span data-descr=\"Know Your Customer\" class=\"old_tooltip\">KYC<\/span> procedure a barrier to the crypto industry.<\/p>\n<p>The expert believes that in the push to broaden the <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-is-web3\">Web3<\/a>-sector through regulation, companies should consider preserving the ideals that initially attracted users to the industry.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in April, Coinbase <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/coinbase-unveils-new-compliance-tools\">launched a new line of products<\/a>, aimed at preventing illicit transactions and ensuring regulatory compliance.<\/p>\n<p>In July, the cryptocurrency exchange <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/coinbase-denies-allegations-of-selling-customer-data\">denied<\/a> accusations of selling users&#8217; confidential data to the U.S. government.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, Snowden <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/edward-snowden-urged-using-cryptocurrencies-but-not-investing-in-them\">advised<\/a> using digital assets as a means of payment, but not to invest in them. He also <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/edward-snowden-played-a-pivotal-role-in-launching-zcash\">revealed his involvement<\/a> in launching the privacy-focused cryptocurrency ZCash in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Follow ForkLog&#8217;s Bitcoin news on our <a href=\"\/\/telegram.me\/forklog\" target=\"\u201c_blank\u201d\" rel=\"\u201cnofollow\u201d noopener\">Telegram<\/a> \u2014 cryptocurrency news, prices and analysis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The former NSA and CIA employee Edward Snowden said that Coinbase&#8217;s excessive commitment to regulatory compliance hampers the development of the digital assets industry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":70367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[138,1587,1138],"class_list":["post-70366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-coinbase","tag-edward-snowden","tag-opinions"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"10","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70366"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70368,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70366\/revisions\/70368"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}