Snowden Issues ‘Final Warning’ to Bitcoin Developers on Privacy Enhancements

Following the recent indictment of the Samourai Wallet developers, Snowden once again voiced his concerns about privacy in the crypto economy. His latest remarks came after Zksnacks declared it would cease its coinjoin service, a feature that enabled users to blend unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs) to thwart onchain surveillance. Snowden stressed the urgency for BTC developers to incorporate privacy features at the protocol level.

“I’ve been warning Bitcoin developers for ten years that privacy needs to be provided for at the protocol level,” Snowden remarked on the social media platform X. The NSA and CIA whistleblower added:

This is the final warning. The clock is ticking.

Snowden has consistently raised alarms with developers for several years. Back in 2020, during a discussion with Naomi Brockwell, he explored the protocol’s privacy deficiencies. He emphasized that BTC lacks the necessary privacy safeguards, and noted, “It is clear to me that the developers have realized this should be done.” “[Developers] haven’t actually moved to do this,” Snowden observed. “Which is puzzling to me because now they’ve had years to do it,” he further stated.

Historically, Snowden has praised the privacy-focused cryptocurrency zcash (ZEC). The noted whistleblower also contributed significantly to the development of the Zcash network by participating in the initial Zcash ceremony under the pseudonym “John Dobbertin.” When Snowden highlighted the need for BTC developers to integrate privacy features, several individuals inquired why he hadn’t mentioned monero (XMR).

“Any reasons not to use/support monero?” Vini Barbosa asked. Bitcoin Core contributor Luke Dashjr responded to Snowden’s statement, noting that he had not previously heard such comments from him. “Anyway, what do you have in mind, specifically? I’m not aware of any viable solutions for protocol-level privacy yet (but I’m not a cryptographer),” Dashjr said. Many others responding to Snowden’s post promoted their preferred privacy assets.

“It’s too late for Blackrock coin,” one person remarked sarcastically.

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