Updated on:12/02/2025 05:54 PM 
Zcash Media has made a stunning revelation: Edward Snowden, the renowned NSA whistleblower, has been unmasked as John Dobbertin, the pseudonymous figure who played a crucial role in developing the privacy-focused cryptocurrency Zcash (ZEC). Snowden confirmed this surprising information during an exclusive interview with Zcash Media. The 37 Laines division has published an educational video based on this groundbreaking conversation.
Titled "The Mystery of Zcash's Trusted Setup: Who is John Dobbertin?", the video was released on Zcash Media's YouTube and Odysee channels, captivating the cryptocurrency community.
In the video, which runs just over nine minutes, Snowden stated,
My name is Edward Snowden. I participated in the Zcash founding ceremony under the name John Dobbertin.
He explained that he decided to take part in the ceremony, which was monumental to the launch of ZEC, because several renowned academic cryptographers were working on the project. Snowden praised ZEC's privacy features, which foster free exchange through private transactions. According to him, it's impossible to have a free society without free financial exchange.
Expressing delight in the milestones that Zcash has achieved thus far, Snowden shared,
I'm just really happy to see that the Zcash project, which I've never really worked closely with, has managed to keep moving beyond the initial steps to keep improving and sort of move us closer and closer toward that dream of a free society which is also a private society.
Detailing what prompted Snowden to reveal his identity in ZEC's creation, the video featured Sean Bowe, an Engineer at Electric Coin Company, the organization behind ZEC. In his segment, Bowe discussed how he developed methods to track the Trusted Setup system, which made holding ceremonies unnecessary.
With Trusted Setups becoming a thing of the past, Zooko Wilcox, the CEO of Electric Coin Company, sent Snowden a message asking him to agree to disclose his real identity.
In response, Snowden agreed on the condition that Wilcox makes it clear he only participated out of public interest and that he neither got paid nor received a stake in the Zcash project.
News of Snowden's contribution to the Zcash project has had minimal impact on ZEC. At the time of writing, the cryptocurrency is up 1.61% in the last 24 hours to trade hands at $149.11. This value represents a 23.16% increase over the past 30 days. Last month's gains came after U.S Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen unexpectedly leaked details of President Biden's Executive Order on Crypto.
