Edward Snowden Co-founded Zcash, a Privacy Coin

According to a newly released video, Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower, is the sixth participant in the 2016 extravagant ceremony that led to the creation of Zcash, a prominent cryptocurrency known for its privacy protection.

Snowden is an American privacy advocate and former US defense contractor who released highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013 while working as a subcontractor and employee. He is well-known for leaking information that has sparked a global debate over internet surveillance. The whistleblower has been living in Russia since 2013 when he was granted asylum after being charged with espionage by the US.

In a video released on April 29, 2022, the notorious whistleblower revealed that he was the sixth person who participated in a 2016 ceremony that led to the creation of Zcash, a privacy coin. The video was titled “The End of Zcash’s Trusted Setup: Who is John Dobbertin?” he admitted he participated in Zcash’s trusted setup ceremony under the pseudonym “John Dobbertin.”

Compared to other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum and Bitcoin, Zcash aims to leverage cryptography to provide better anonymity for its users. The coin employs a cryptographic technique to ensure that transactions are untraceable and cannot be linked to wallet holders.

In the video, he was revealed to be one of the six essential people who took part in the Zcash setup ceremony held in 2016 to launch Zcash.

In a recent correspondence to Zooko Wilcox, co-founder and CEO of Zcash, Snowden consented to make his participation public five years after the mystical event. “As long as it is clear that I was never paid and had no stake, it was just a public interest thing, I think you can tell people”, he said.

Edward Snowden’s involvement was primarily motivated by his interest in privacy-protection technologies. Privacy coins like Zcash are significant now when cryptocurrency exchanges are under pressure to monitor Russia-related crypto activities due to Western sanctions imposed in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.