CBDC = Secret Fascist Currency? Snowden Criticizes Central Bank Digital Currencies as the Latest Social Crisis

Former U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, who is currently residing in Russia due to being wanted for leaking classified information through the Prism surveillance program, released a sarcastic tweet on the 10th. In it, he stated, "CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) could easily destroy workers' savings." Snowden's tweet was in response to an article written by Indian economist Dr. Eswar Prasad in The New York Times discussing CBDC.

Is the Concept of CBDC at Odds with "Cryptocurrency"?

In his blog, Snowden expressed fear about this: "The emergence of CBDC is a misunderstanding of the concept of cryptocurrency. It is a form of secret fascist currency... denying users the fundamental ownership of personal finances and meticulously recording every transaction."

Take BTC and ETH as examples, the concept of cryptocurrency advocates for "decentralization," which means serving as a value store and medium of exchange without the need for third-party intervention. Conversely, CBDC can be said to completely contradict this fundamental concept, as it centralizes the financial system, allowing every penny spent to be closely monitored by the central bank.

In fact, Snowden is not alone in this view. In August of this year, the U.S. political news company POLITICO conducted a survey exploring the opinions of 2,500 UK adults on CBDC. Among them, only 24% of respondents believed that CBDC would have a positive net benefit on society; on the other hand, 30% of respondents held negative views on CBDC, believing that the harm it brings may outweigh the benefits. Additionally, nearly three-quarters of the respondents expressed concerns about "cyberattacks."