Former spy Edward Snowden, now residing in Russia, known for revealing documents kept secret by the US National Security Agency (NSA), has been revealed to have had a hand in the creation of Zcash (ZEC), a privacy-focused altcoin. output. Here are the details…
Edward Snowden helped launch privacy altcoin Zcash
According to a video posted by Zcash, Edward Snowden helped launch Zcash in 2016. Snowden joined the group of Zcash creator Zooko Wilcox, Bitcoin core developer Peter Todd, Peter Van Valkenburgh of Coin Center, and two others to launch the Zcash Blockchain. In a process known as “trusted setup”, each of the six participants received a portion of the private key needed to create the cryptocurrency. Previously, the identity of the sixth participant, now revealed to be Snowden, was known under the pseudonym “John Dobbertin”.
The news was first reported based on a leaked video by Zcash Media where Snowden discussed the need for a privacy-centric alternative to Bitcoin. “Bitcoin is a pretty famous open ledger,” Snowden said in this video. The problem with this is that you can’t really trade freely unless you have a covert trade. You cannot have a free society without free trade,” he says. It was stated that Snowden did not receive any financial gain from Zcash.
Here’s the story of Zcash (ZEC) and Snowden
Zcash is known as a privacy coin because it’s zero knowledge, a form of cryptography that can be used to verify that a legitimate transaction has taken place without needing to see the details (zero-knowledge) evidence. Snowden has lived in exile in Russia since being accused of espionage by the US government in 2013 after leaking documents about the NSA’s surveillance program to the media. As we have also reported on Cryptokoin.com, before Snowden was arrested, he fled to Russia and sought asylum.
Despite being involved in the creation of the privacy coin, Snowden reportedly did not join Zcash for the money. The Electric Coin Company behind the altcoin said he was not given crypto or other compensation for his involvement. ZEC is changing hands at $148.73, down 2% at the time of writing.
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