According to TechFlow, Edward Snowden, a well-known whistleblower and former CIA and NSA contractor, delivered a keynote speech at the Bitcoin 2024 conference, highlighting the pitfalls of political allegiance and concerns about Bitcoin privacy. Snowden called on people to vote, but warned against blindly following political ideologies. He stressed: "Vote, but don't join a cult."

Snowden pointed out that Bitcoin transactions are not anonymous and can be traced back to individuals, which poses a risk to personal privacy. He explained that most transactions can be linked through various entry points (such as exchanges that comply with regulatory requirements), thus exposing users' lives and relationships.

Snowden warned that governments and companies could use artificial intelligence to analyze this data to create detailed profiles of individuals without consent, and called for greater vigilance and tighter security for bitcoin transactions to protect user privacy in an increasingly digital and surveilled world.

Snowden said he had raised these concerns for a decade but felt "ignored." He now asserts that the window of opportunity to achieve these goals is closing rapidly.