Edward Snowden has again made headlines commenting on the privacy of Bitcoin. The whistleblower who exposed a secret surveillance program of American citizens has some serious reservations concerning the oldest cryptocurrency.
<h2>Bitcoin is Not Private Enough: Edward Snowden</h2>
Edward Snowden is one of the foremost privacy advocates in the world. According to him 

“Bitcoin isn't private enough—and that an upcoming software update could make it worse.”

However, some Bitcoin developers and privacy advocates disagreed with his assessment. 

His comments have surely created an uproar from fellow activists such as<a href="https://www.cryptoknowmics.com/news/bitcoin-is-the-future-of-financial-system-alex-gladstein/"> Alex Gladstein</a>, the Chief Strategy Officer of the Human Rights Foundation, who thinks “Snowden has misrepresented the upgrade.”

https://twitter.com/gladstein/status/1390918071217360896

Others have argued that,

“The Russian exile can't see the importance of mainstream adoption to the project, which could falter if it turns too far toward anonymity.”

<a href="https://www.cryptoknowmics.com/news/edward-snowdens-stay-free-nft-art-sells-for-54-million/">Snowden</a> while talking to Electronic Frontier Foundation's Marta Belcher mentioned that.

"Cryptocurrency, and by this, I'm just going to say Bitcoin, is really failing comprehensively, terribly, on the privacy angle." Taproot, he added, isn't a good fix.
<h2>Researchers Take on The Privacy of The Coin</h2>
Several developers and researchers shared their take on Snowden's comments, mentioning that Taproot was incorrect. Gladstein said that Snowden misunderstands <a href="https://www.cryptoknowmics.com/news/activation-date-set-for-bitcoins-taproot-upgrade/">Taproot</a>. He says,

"With great respect for Edward Snowden, who has sacrificed so much to reveal the surveillance state to the world, I disagree with his assessment of Bitcoin privacy and hope he can consider looking more deeply into the Taproot upgrade and existing privacy tools like CoinJoin and Lightning.”

Gladstein also said;

“Snowden's swipe at Bitcoin developers' priorities was wrong. They are in fact constrained by Bitcoin's users, who will not accept any software upgrades which ruin Bitcoin's auditability, backward compatibility, or stability. The developers can't just do whatever they want, they have to carefully design solutions that don't sacrifice the values which make Bitcoin so important in the first place, namely, decentralized digital scarcity and the ability for users to control the system, not corporations or governments. This arrangement means that Bitcoin cannot put experimental cryptography onto the main chain today."

Bitcoin isn’t Private Enough, Update Makes it Worse: Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden who exposed a secret surveillance program of American citizens made headlines commenting on the privacy of Bitcoin. 

A student from a technical background, Deepshikha found Bitcoin in 2020 and has been an evangelist ever since. A B.Tech turned into a full-time crypto-writer, she tries to bridge the gap that currently exists between the crypto world and people from non-technical backgrounds, through her simplistic yet effective form of writing. She finds that her writing for cryptocurrencies can redefine the way the audience interacts with the crypto space.

Bitcoin isn’t Private Enough, Update Makes it Worse: Edward Snowden

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