In 2013, Edward Snowden shattered notions of online privacy by exposing a global operation by US intelligence agencies to spy on citizens. Although his revelations cost him great personal losses, they strengthened his position as a staunch defender of privacy rights.
Speaking at the Token2049 conference in Singapore, Snowden unexpectedly criticized Solana's centralized approach to blockchain development, warning that it could ultimately play into the hands of authoritarian regimes.
Responding to a question from the audience at Token2049 about developing “secure” technology, Snowden cited Solana as a poor example of how blockchain should not be designed. He emphasized that true security requires being “adversarial” from the start.
Snowden explained that Solana takes good ideas but centralizes them to make the protocol as fast and cheap as possible. While this provides convenience and simplifies the system, he warned that it also creates trade-offs, as it becomes “a system that has levers that blockchain management can just take away from ordinary users.”
Snowden discussed as an example the recent situation with Telegram, whose founder Pavel Durov was arrested and then released. The privacy advocate noted that after Durov's release, the messaging app changed its terms of service, illustrating the pressure that centralized platforms are under from authorities. Given Solana's current centralization, Solana's top management could also be arrested and technically the network could be subject to censorship and insider hacking.