• Snowden refers to the Fed-backed CBDC as a “useful policy tool” to annihilate people’s savings.
• While Snowden remains critical of the CBDC or the Digital dollar, he is positive for public cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is yet to issue a central bank digital currency (CBDC). However, it is considering a future hypothetical case. But popular whistleblower Edward Snowden has expressed dissent for such a concept.

Last Saturday, October 9, Snowden published an article with a comprehensive take on Fed-controlled CBDCs. He also noted about the U.S. Federal government shall implement it if they plan to.

In a further response to his tweet, Snowden shared an excerpt of the opinion piece from Dr Prasad. In the opinion story published in NY Times back in July 2021, Dr Prasad praised the so-called digital dollar. The excerpt from the opinion piece notes that if the new digital dollar replaces cash “the Fed could impose a negative interest rate by gradually shrinking the electronic balances in everyone’s digital currency accounts, creating an incentive for consumers to spend and companies to invest”. Responding to it, on Sunday, October 10, Snowden wrote:

What is a Central Bank Digital Currency, you ask? Oh, you know: just a “useful policy tool” for casually annihilating the savings of every wage-worker in the country if they don’t spend them fast enough.

Thereby Snowden made it clear that he doesn’t consider CBDCs akin to a ‘digital dollar’. This is due to the inherent differences in the operating mechanism and processes of control associated with the CBDCs. It’s not that Snowden has any special affinity for ‘digital dollar’. He refers to it as something like a wolf in a sheep’s clothing.

Edward Snowden backs crypto

Edward Snowden has always been positive on crypto and shared his views for the first time during the March 2020 crash. Recently, the whistleblower also extended his support for Bitcoin amid the China crackdown. He noted that such attempts will only make Bitcoin stronger.

However, Snowden has been a supporter of public cryptocurrencies or decentralized digital assets. His recent views on CBDCs come just as many central banks have been actively pursuing it.

The Federal Reserve has been actively working on the matter of Digital Dollar. The central bank also noted that it would release a discussion paper this summer about the Digital Dollar. Thus, the crypto community has been actively waiting for the same.

Snowden’s views are not in particular for just the Digital Dollar but CBDCs in the other parts of the world as well. Earlier this month, IMF Director Kristalina Georgieva said that 110 countries are currently exploring CBDCs. China has been leading the CBDC developments. At the same time, the European Union is also gearing up to introduce the Digital Euro in the next 3-4 years.