Edward Snowden played a key role in the creation of Zcash

Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower, as early as 2016 and using a pseudonym, played a key role in the creation of Zcash (ZEC), the privacy-enhancing crypto, 

Edward Snowden helped create Zcash (ZEC)

Zcash Media, an organization that produces educational material on the privacy currency, revealed in a video Edward Snowden’s presence at the ceremony that formed Zcash’s trusted setup in 2016. 

SURPRISE! Our 2nd video came early.

Watch it now to learn about #Zcash's Ceremony, how it worked, why @ebfull's Halo breakthrough makes it obsolete, and an exclusive interview with #JohnDobbertin himself, Edward @Snowden.

🛡️ https://t.co/Pyk0pwkIto
🛡️ https://t.co/RxgJgbtBcR pic.twitter.com/2efMGnmRx1

— Zcash Media 🛡️ (@zcashmedia) April 27, 2022

“SURPRISE! Our 2nd video came early. Watch it now to learn about #Zcash’s Ceremony, how it worked, why  @ebfull’s Halo breakthrough makes it obsolete, and an exclusive interview with #JohnDobbertin himself, Edward @Snowden”.

Going by the name John Dobbertin, Snowden appears in the video claiming he was attracted to the project because several trusted academic cryptographers were already working on it. 

Here are Snowden’s exact words:

“When it 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 the public interest, and that that was necessary for the ceremony to succeed, I was happy to say, ‘Sure, I’ll help”.

Snowden’s life 

Edward Snowden became famous for being a former American computer intelligence consultant who leaked information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013, when he was an employee and subcontractor. 

It was because of this information leak, which occurred while Snowden was in Hong Kong, that a cultural discussion about national security and individual privacy was sparked. 

On 21 June 2013, the gravity of Snowden’s act led the US Department of Justice to make public the charges against Snowden, and to revoke his passport. 

At Moscow airport, Snowden was detained by the authorities. Russia granted asylum to Snowden, who could only apply for permanent residence in 2020. 

Edward Snowden and his support for Zcash

While Snowden’s participation in the creation of Zcash, the fighter for freedom and free and public access to information, has been revealed, this is not the first time Snowden has spoken about it. 

As early as November 2021, in fact, in an exchange of “views” on Twitter with Giacomo Zucco, a well-known Bitcoin maximalist, Snowden had already expressed his support for the privacy crypto. 

Snowden had responded by saying that Zcash is a decentralized and functional blockchain, with the specific purpose of enabling private transactions. Not only that, but he added that Zcash has proved useful in understanding what crypto can do to help citizens. 

Conversely, Snowden had criticized Bitcoin regarding its huge on-chain privacy problem.