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Edward Snowden revealed as key participant in mysterious ceremony creating zcash
- camillomiller 5y agoNot a single mention, not even in passing, about how Snowden is silent since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, after claiming that Russia would never invade.
- MarcellusDrum 5y agoUmm, he did address this on his Twitter. > I'm not suspended from the ceiling above a barrel of acid by a rope that burns a little faster every time I tweet, you concern-trolling ghouls. I've just lost any confidence I had that sharing my thinking on this particular topic continues to be useful, because I called it wrong. He admitted that he was wrong, and did the responsible thing which is not speculating anymore about things he does not understand.
- Barrin92 5y agono offense but that's exactly what I would write as well if Russian officials told me that one bad tweet is going to get me on a plane to the US in exchange for some spies, which I guarantee you is exactly the situation he is in. Given that he's stopped tweeting altogether after the start of the war despite usually posting daily I'm supposed to think he doesn't have opinions on anything any more out of his own volition? Odd coincidence
- scottdomes 5y ago
- dragonwriter 5y ago...he posted that 3 days after the invasion, 6 days after his previous tweet, and hasn't posted (including likes or RTs) since though he was posting multiple tweets a day on a wide variety of topics up until stopping 3 days before the invasion. I mean, unless he had a much broader epiphany and you mean literally everything when you say “things he does not understand”, the tweet you reference, and your (reasonable) characterization of it's overt message read in isolation, doesn't really explain his actual behavior change. EDIT: It's also worth noting that his next to last tweet, on the last day he tweeted before the six-day pause, was a vague (generally taken as negative) post apparently about Putin’s speech the same day: https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1495848959335706630?t=QSIW5PC46joZOSdtSct6BQ&s=19 https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1495848959335706630?t=QSI...
- hndamien 5y agoHere is the speech which has been censored from Youtube. https://rumble.com/vw0nzv-vladimir-putins-speech-on-ukraine-and-us-foreign-policynato-feb-242022-subt.html https://rumble.com/vw0nzv-vladimir-putins-speech-on-ukraine-...
- skybrian 5y agoIsn't Twitter banned and blocked in Russia currently?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- robbedpeter 5y agoYeah, Edward Snowden was foiled by the Russian state firewall. I think it's likely he had the epiphany that he'd be a pointed lesson in not mouthing off about Putin while you're exiled in Russia, especially with his wife and kid there.
- microtherion 5y agoThis is, of course, exactly what somebody who IS suspended from the ceiling above a barrel of acid by a rope that burns a little faster every time they tweet would write, so it's difficult to tell what his actual situation is.
- subjectsigma 5y agoNot a single mention in your comment that afterwards, Snowden apologized and said he would refrain from making statements on topics he didn't understand which could be considered misinformation.
- jollybean 5y agoHe doesn't need to apologize - everyone realizes that almost nobody knows the answer to such things and that it'd be a de facto estimation or opinion. Otherwise, he has to keep his trap shut or face being sent to Siberia. Putin isn't tolerating anything at the moment.
- cyberia23424 5y agoNone of his followers seem to care much about it either
- ncmncm 5y agoPeople care. What can they do?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- jollybean 5y agoHe's in Russia where they invent laughable fake evidence against anyone disagreeing with the state about anything. Protesters were arrested for holding up literally blank placards. At this point, anyone inside Russia isn't saying jack about jack, for very obvious reasons.
- monkeybutton 5y agoAlso for holding up copies of War and Peace, signs with just asterisks, and even quotes from speeches made by Putin himself. Still, better than what's happened to a few Gazprombank executives and their families recently.
- MerelyMortal 5y agoIt's not the message, it's the action.
- pimlottc 5y agoThe medium is the message
- camillomiller 5y agoYep, which is why he’s definitely in a damned if you do damned if you don’t situation. I still think the article should have mentioned at least the current predicament he’s in, because to me that’s relevant in shaping his opinions and decisions.
- null0pointer 5y agoHow is that relevant at all? Also why would Snowden claim about Russia not invading Ukraine be worth paying attention to in the first place? It's not like he's the first person to have an uninformed opinion.
- camillomiller 5y agoBecause he’s an activist for freedom of speech and lives in a country that suppresses it? Don’t y’all get me wrong, i think he’s in a very complicated position and I still think he’s a reasonable and important figure. Unfortunately some of his choices and the choices of people who made him who he is (namely Glenn Greenwald) have deeply affected his relevance and the power of his voice.
- aaaaaaaaata 5y agoLearn the entire story before you condemn someone's "choices"; he had chosen a different destination, and was forced elsewhere by the timing of when his passport was revoked.
- crossroadsguy 5y agoWhat do you expect from him? Get sent to Gulag? Or end up in a ditch by pissing on the only country on planet where he could probably remain alive? And for what? A country that elected Trump? Or a western world for whom Ukraine carnage is crisis but pulling the trigger too many times to obliterate a suspected bad guy along with dozens of confirmed innocents civilian adults and children and call it calculated decision “in the interest of citizens of a white nation”?
- bdcravens 5y agoHe could take bold actions against the nation that he lives in and then flee for safety.
- dgellow 5y agoWhat do you mean by “flee for safety”? Do you think he’s in Russia by choice? It’s not the case, he cannot leave the country.
- blitzar 5y agoHe is free to leave Russia any time he likes.
- netsharc 5y agoWhich of the following would you put money on: 1) that if he goes to the airport and there'll be FSB/police that will refuse him boarding and arrest him; or 2) that he'll be free to board and fly? If you pick 2), which would you put money on: 3) that he'll be free to walk out of the airport at the destination country; or 4) that he'll be met by Interpol agents that'll arrest him and start the process of delivering him to USA?
- robbedpeter 5y agoI bet they'd send marines to recover him and his family if he asked. They'd get disappeared to a US black site and lost to history, but barring that, he's pretty much fenced in. The fog of war and chaos might provide him an opportunity to escape to Europe, and from there to Africa and maybe South America. Whatever regime replaces Putin might end up being friendly to the US and give up Snowden as a gesture. I don't envy Snowden's choices. It could be his last opportunity to escape to someplace where he can raise his kid in peace.
- vmception 5y agoWhy do you think that is relevant to this article about an unrelated topic? Read his wikipedia page if you want a discography
- camillomiller 5y agoDo you really think that anything Snowden says or does is relevant if detached from the actions that made him who he is and from the fact he could only find shelter in an enemy State?
- vmception 5y agoyes, it is very easy for many of us to compartmentalize these things the original state and its allies blanket the globe, the original state operates in a system of flawed checks and balances while simultaneously promoting the public interest the "enemy state" is competition that allows for things to reach the public interest of the original state but only from within enemy state. it operates under a different system which was not being compared at all and cannot be compared while relying on its border, these are the limitations on this globe.
- dragonwriter 5y agoAt first thought this might be a sign of life, but apparently it's a prerecorded video for a documentary shared with the media (with no indication it came immediately from Snowden.) Is there any public contact with Snowden since his last tweet 2/27? I can find not specific reference to a student event around the same week, and something off Twitter specifically 2/26, but since then nothing I can find reference to.
- radicaldreamer 5y agoHe's not dead or detained, he's just laying low because there's no dissent tolerated in Russia right now and definitely not from someone in his situation.
- ncmncm 5y agoWe just don't know. Could be anything.
- bdcravens 5y agoThe whole reason he is there is due to one of the greatest acts of dissent in American history.
- function_seven 5y agoYeah, but no requirement that he spend his life repeating it. Especially since his act of dissent in 2013 was something few others could or would do. His opposing the invasion of Ukraine would have a small impact compared to the leaking of NSA docs.
- aaron695 5y ago
- selfportrait 5y agoNot the least bit surprising to hear this considering his overt advertising on Twitter for Zcash. https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1462532222368591884 https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1462532222368591884 Peter Todd (Bitcoin developer) was another participant in the Zcash creation ceremony. He wrote a post about it and cast doubts about the process. https://petertodd.org/2016/cypherpunk-desert-bus-zcash-trusted-setup-ceremony https://petertodd.org/2016/cypherpunk-desert-bus-zcash-trust... A “scientist” on the Zcash team, Matthew Green, spoke of backdooring Zcash once upon a time. https://twitter.com/notgrubles/status/1011830929004875777 https://twitter.com/notgrubles/status/1011830929004875777 I’m not saying there’s a conspiracy at play here, but more so putting a spotlight on Snowden’s untrustworthiness. https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/913557610858778625 https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/913557610858778625 Here is Snowden (un)subtly favoring Zcash over Monero, another privacy coin. Not suspicious at all given his secret ties and financial incentive to Zcash and its curious, sketchy history. This isn’t to mention the “Founders Reward” that cut 10-20% of mined coins to the creator’s wallets (“ The remaining 20% of the reward was split among various parties including 9.85% to ECC founders, 2.2% to the Zcash Foundation, 5.75% to ECC itself and 2.2% to ECC employee compensation.”) https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2020/11/18/zcash-undergoes-first-halving-as-major-upgrade-drops-founders-reward/ https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2020/11/18/zcash-undergoes-fir... Or the fact that Zcash is opt-in privacy, meaning 99% of transactions are transparent and 1% of users opt for privacy (not suspicious at all for those users, wouldn’t one think?)