RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Former CIA systems administrator Edward Snowden, who became famous for disclosing details of the NSA’s surveillance system, used social media to comment on the adoption of bitcoin in El Salvador. According to him, other countries should follow the same path.
Answering journalist Aaron van Wirdum, who is currently in El Salvador and wrote about the experience of paying for his meal at a McDonald’s in the capital city of San Salvador with bitcoin, Snowden said that there is now “pressure on competing nations” to also buy bitcoin, as the Salvadoran government has done, acquiring 550 units of the cryptocurrency. According to Snowden, bitcoin’s design also encourages its quick adoption.
“Bitcoin has been formally recognized as a legal tender in its first country. Headlines aside, there is now pressure on competing nations to also acquire bitcoin – even if only as a reserve asset – since its design massively encourages early adoption. Those who are late may regret their hesitation,” he posted.
This is not the first time Edward Snowden has spoken out about the world’s leading cryptocurrency. In March last year, shortly after the pandemic outbreak and the crash that brought the price of bitcoin down by over 50%, he said that he “felt like he was going to buy some bitcoin” – however, the activist has never confirmed the purchase.
In 2021, Snowden revisited the issue, when he used social media to criticize bitcoin’s inability to protect the financial privacy of its users. He said that the fact that blockchain transactions are public, and with the requirement that brokerages perform identity checks on their users, it is easy for governments to link addresses on the Bitcoin network to individuals.
El Salvador adopted bitcoin last Tuesday, September 7, with some issues related to the official government wallet now resolved. On the same day, the price of the cryptocurrency dropped from nearly US$53,000 to less than US$44,000, in a move that experts said was a “classic case of ‘buy-the-rumor-sell-the-fact1.” By Thursday, the cryptocurrency recovered part of its losses, trading above US$47,000.