Edward Snowden Criticism Solana, Issue Of Strengthening Sentralization

Edward Snowden was a speaker at the 2049 Token event. (Photo; Doc. CryptoNews)

JAKARTA The former whistleblower of the United States National Security Agency (NSA), Edward Snowden, recently criticized the Solana blockchain for being too centralized. This statement was made by Snowden via video conference at the TOKEN 2049 largest crypto event that took place in Singapore.

Snowden expressed concern about Solana's operational model, which is said to be vulnerable to manipulation by the state and those with malicious intent. He highlighted that although Solana is known for its speed and efficiency in transaction processing, the innovations sacrifice the principle of decentralization which is the main foundation of blockchain technology.

"Solana took a good idea," he said. Then he added, "What if we centralize everything? This will be faster, more efficient, cheaper... and yes, no one uses it except for coin and scamming memes," said Snowden.

Suddenly Snowden's statement sparked debate among the crypto community that was present at the event. Solana's centralization issue is nothing new. Some time ago, a number of parties have criticized Solana's governance structure, which is considered too concentrated on a handful of parties.

Launching CryptoBriefing, a recent report from a Cardano supporter revealed that more than 73 percent of Solana's validators comply with the rules of KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti Money Laundering).

The validators receive subsidies through the Stake-o-matic tool from Solana. According to some, this makes the Solana network more like a traditional financial institution than a decentralized blockchain network.

Despite concerns about centralization, Solana's original token, SOL, still shows significant growth. At the time of writing, the price of SOL was trading at the level of IDR 2.2 million. In terms of price performance, SOL rose 6.2% in the last 24 hours according to CoinGecko data on October 4, 2024. Currently, SOL ranks 5th behind USDT and BNB as the largest crypto asset by market cap.