former employee NSA and CIA Edward Snowden announced that he was involved in the launch of privacy-focused cryptocurrency ZCash in 2016.

He talked about it in a video for Zcash Media, a media group that produces educational content about the coin.

“When you run ZCash, an encryption key is generated that is used to lock the code that runs the cryptocurrency. From now on, no one will be able to fake transactions,” the video explains.

At the same time, users should trust the developer. To fix the problem, the ZCash team decided to share the key among six participants, called “trusted installation”.

If at least one of the fragment owners destroys it, the network will be secured.

Shortly after the Genesis blog went live, the five members revealed their identities. Sixth was Snowden, under the pseudonym John Dobbert.

“Of course I will help,” I happily explained when it came to the idea of ​​a few people from many places collaborating in the hope that at least one would not be jeopardized, not contrary to the public interest, and necessary to the success of this ceremony.

The informant has been in Russia since 2013, when he received political asylum.

Two years later, the procedure was repeated to perform the Sapling update. The developers hope to eliminate the need for such ceremonies with the Halo upgrade.

Snowden drew attention to this even before the launch of ZCash, noting the potential for anonymity.

Earlier, he stated that it is the main drawback of the public Bitcoin blockchain. Snowden confirmed his position in a video from Zcash Media:

“When we look at a cryptocurrency, we see that its cryptographic features are used to ensure the validity of the ledger, but do not guarantee its confidentiality. It is well known that Bitcoin has a public ledger. The problem is, you can’t really have free trade if you don’t have private trade. There can be no free society without free trade.”

Recall that in November 2021, the developers of ZCash published a roadmap for the development of the project until 2025.