By Scott Matherson

 

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden gave a keynote speech at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, during which he made certain shocking revelations about Bitcoin and the broader crypto ecosystem. He also made a case for why crypto remains an individual’s best bet against fighting corrupt institutional practices. 

 

What Snowden Said About Bitcoin…

 

Snowden mentioned during his keynote speech at the Bitcoin 2024 conference that most Bitcoin transactions are fully doxxed, although not made public. He made this revelation while noting how this is possible, considering that transactions on the network are permanent and can be publicly verified by anyone.

 

However, the whistleblower suggested that the identities of those making transactions on the Bitcoin network (and other chains) aren’t as anonymous as some might think. He further asserted that “legacy exchanges,” which act as on-ramps for crypto users, usually share users’ information with regulators, which Snowden called ‘great powers.’

 

Snowden stated that these great powers can decipher other aspects of users’ lives, including their life histories and political affiliations, through their transaction histories. He described how these powers gather individuals’ metadata or activity records and use them to form a complete picture of them without ever needing to get a warrant. 

 

Snowden’s speech again highlighted the issue of users’ privacy, which has become a common theme when using centralized entities. He noted how these entities have no regard for users’ data despite several warnings and even the introduction of privacy laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

 

The NSA whistleblower indirectly made a case for decentralization, a major principle in the crypto world. The fall of several centralized exchanges like FTX and the increased surveillance of exchanges like Binance have led to greater adoption of decentralized exchanges (DEXs), considering the freedom and privacy they afford users. 

 

This issue regarding the breach of users’ privacy also makes a case for self-custody and how crypto users should embrace self-custodial wallets. This ensures that individuals have greater control over their finances rather than relying on third-party systems, which can easily be compromised.

 

Vitalik Buterin’s Words Come To Mind…

 

Snowden’s speech echoes a similar sentiment to that of Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin. While recently discussing the relationship between crypto and politics, Buterin noted that crypto was more than just money. Instead, he argued that the primary purpose for which crypto was introduced was to achieve freedom.

 

According to Vitalik, this freedom comes in several spheres, including ‘freedom and privacy of communication,’ ‘freedom and privacy-friendly digital identity,’ ‘freedom and privacy of thought,’ and ‘high-quality access to information, among others. In achieving this freedom, users can have greater control over their digital identity and how their information is shared. 

 

The crypto space is undoubtedly making strides to grant individuals this freedom. For instance, technologies like Shiba Inu’s Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) solution enable encrypted data processing and help address privacy concerns when using blockchain technology. Zero-knowledge (ZK) proof technology is another, as users can now transact anonymously without fearing their identity being revealed.

 

 

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But there is a better solution for attaining complete transactional privacy… Bitcoin’s Private Twin : EPIC Cash!

 

Epic Cash Introduced To The Financial Investment Community By Mike Mumola!

 

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Why EPIC Cash better represents the DNA of Bitcoin than Bitcoin Itself…

Bitcoin (BTC) and EPIC Cash (EPIC) are two cryptocurrencies that not only had a fair launch, but also no premining, no Initial Offering (ICO), no enterprise and no venture capital. Both are grassroots movements driven by an ever-growing community of freedom-loving idealists. On closer inspection, both also have other surprising similarities that can be traced back to their shared DNA, the DNA of Bitcoin.

 

The term “DNA of Bitcoin” refers to the principles and characteristics that define Bitcoin and distinguish it from other cryptocurrencies. Satoshi Nakamoto described what these fundamental principles and properties are, or should be, in his white paper “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System“, which was published in 2008.

 

One of the distinguishing features of BTC and also EPIC is their limited supply. With a cap of 21 million coins for each cryptocurrency, they embrace the concept of scarcity and position themselves as disinflationary assets that are resistant to the inflationary pressures inherent in all arbitrarily multipliable fiat currencies.

 

Both BTC and EPIC are based on decentralized networks in which transactions are validated and recorded by a PoW consensus mechanism. The blockchain technology underlying BTC and EPIC enables the tamper-proof and immutable recording of transactions. 

 

The title of the Bitcoin white paper already indicates that Bitcoin is supposed to be a peer-to-peer electronic cash payment system. The reality today is different. Instead of a means of payment, BTC has become an almost pure store of value, like physical gold. Hence the often-used euphemistic description of this state of BTC as “digital gold”.

 

BTC is unsuitable for smaller amounts in everyday use due to high fees and long transaction times. This is not a negative thing per se, but it is not what the inventor had in mind. EPIC, on the other hand, has significantly shorter transaction times and lower fees, which makes it suitable for everyday use, even for micropayments.

 

In addition to network security, the Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanism introduced by BTC originally aimed to achieve both a high level of decentralization and better distribution of the mined coins by allowing anyone to participate in the mining process using simple home computers.

 

However, the development of special hardware, so-called ASICs, which are only used for Bitcoin mining, has led to mining being concentrated on large mining farms. With simple commodity hardware, it is therefore practically no longer possible to participate in the mining process in a meaningful way.

 

EPIC is the only cryptocurrency to integrate a polyphasic PoW, which uses different and alternating algorithms to guarantee that even older and standard household computers can meaningfully participate in the mining process, which promotes both decentralization and network security.

 

In contrast to BTC, decentralization of EPIC continues to increase with the number of new users, as the relatively low hardware requirements significantly lower the hurdles both for operating your own node and for mining itself.

 

Thanks to the revolutionary Mimblewimble protocol with its unique “Cut-Through”, EPIC has a 90% smaller blockchain with the same utilization as BTC. This makes it much easier to set up and synchronize your own new network node and ensures that the network continues to expand. Both network security as a whole and the user’s own security are increased if there is no need to rely on external network nodes for transactions.

 

The increasing centralization of BTC mining due to cost pressure and specialization has an additional negative impact on the non-censorship of transactions in addition to the concentration of mining and the associated decrease in decentralization. There are various technologies and tools that miners can use to filter or exclude transactions, such as transaction verification and selection software.

 

A few large BTC mining companies, unlike many smaller mining entities, can relatively easily be forced by the state through legislation to stop including transactions from or to certain wallet addresses in the blocks, which can lead to a significant delay or even non-execution of certain transactions, which goes against the philosophy of creating a censorship-resistant payment system.

 

With EPIC, a concentration of mining like that of BTC is very unlikely due to the polyphasic PoW, and EPIC, which is based on Mimblewimble, works entirely without wallet addresses. This means that transactions cannot be assigned to specific wallets or wallet owners from the outset. 

 

This type of data protection, working without wallet addresses, protects EPIC from certain wallet addresses appearing on OFAC’s blacklists in the first place and thus being excluded from the transaction process. (see: OFAC’s Bitcoin Blacklist Could Change Crypto)

 

Knowing that Bitcoin’s sore point is the lack of privacy, Satoshi suggests in the whitepaper keeping the public keys (wallet addresses) anonymous and “as an additional firewall, a new key pair should be used for each transaction to keep them from being linked to a common owner. Some linking is still unavoidable with multi-input transactions, which necessarily reveal that their inputs were owned by the same owner. The risk is that if the owner of a key is revealed, linking could reveal other transactions that belonged to the same owner.”

 

This is where the similarities between BTC and EPIC end…

 

In stark contrast to BTC’s completely transparent blockchain, which stores all transaction information and is therefore traceable forever, EPIC’s Mimblewimble blockchain stores no such information, guaranteeing that its transactions remain 100℅ private and forever untraceable.

 

Even if quantum computing should one day break the underlying code of EPIC (the Elliptic Curve Cryptography), there is nothing to see. But quantum computing is not needed to assign BTC transactions to individual wallets and analyze all the relationships. All information is publicly available to everyone today and forever!

 

State of the art forensic techniques used by blockchain analysis companies, such as Chainalysis, CypherTrace, Elliptic, Coinfirm etc., completely uncover public blockchain transactions down to the smallest detail and render the method proposed by Satoshi useless. 

 

However, privacy protection is essential for fungibility. As soon as coins or wallet addresses are distinguished, appear on blacklists and can be rejected as a means of payment, every currency will collapse sooner or later.

 

Andreas Antonopoulos, author of the book “Mastering Bitcoin“, claims that Bitcoin’s dominance is at risk in the coming years due to data protection concerns.

”Tainted coins are very destructive. If you break fungibility and privacy, you break the currency.”

 

Summary:

 

Bitcoin was created with the idea of a disinflationary, decentralized and uncensorable online payment system that is independent of third parties and limited to 21 million coins. This idea was implemented in the best possible way using the technical possibilities available in 2009. 

 

Over time, the non-ASIC-resistant PoW led to simple home computers being completely ousted from the mining process and mining being concentrated on mining farms operated by corporations. Due to high transaction fees and long transaction times, Bitcoin is unsuitable for daily micropayments and mainly serves as a store of value. Privacy is de facto non-existent with BTC due to the complete disclosure of all transaction relationships in the entire blockchain by specialized companies, which has a negative impact on fungibility.

 

EPIC Cash, launched in 2019, represents a paradigm shift in the cryptocurrency landscape with its revolutionary Mimblewimble protocol. A powerful combination of privacy, scalability and fungibility realizes Satoshi’s vision outlined in the Bitcoin whitepaper far better than BTC. While the characteristics of immutability, limited supply and open source code are the same for BTC and EPIC, the decentralization, censorship resistance, privacy and usability as a peer-to-peer online payment system are significantly better for EPIC Cash, making it the “more handsome and intelligent” twin, which better represents the DNA of Bitcoin than Bitcoin itself.

 

For more EPIC articles by Tilman… visit HERE

 

Mike Adams and Todd Pitner talk private money… EPIC Cash

At 3:52 Mike Adams explains his Superior Money comparison:

 

 

 

 

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To find out more about EPIC Cash… visit www.epiccash.com

To acquire EPIC Cash… visit www.buyepiccash.com

To buy EPIC Cash peer to peer on ViteX (best way)… follow this Tutorial

Visit EPIC Cash’s community Telegram for more info and help.

 

 

Andreas Antonopoulos on the ideal properties of a cryptocurrency.

… an EPIC Cash Unofficial Creative Effort by Spencer