Edward Snowden, the well-known whistleblower and advocate for privacy, made pointed remarks about Solana during the TOKEN2049 conference held in Singapore. Following his presentation, titled “The Next Threat to Speech,” Snowden participated in a Q&A session where he critiqued Solana’s architecture, voicing concerns regarding its centralized characteristics and the nature of the projects it supports.
When asked, “How do we design technology from first principles to ensure its safety?” Snowden seized the moment to draw distinctions between Bitcoin’s adversarial design and what he sees as Solana’s more fragile, centralized structure.
“When examining the Bitcoin whitepaper, it’s apparent that it adopts an adversarial approach to the system, which is crucial to consider,” Snowden stated. Without explicitly naming SOL at first, he quickly transitioned to critique the network, saying, “I don’t want to mention names, but Solana is taking sound concepts and saying, well, what if we centralized everything? It’ll be quicker, more efficient, and cheaper, and while that’s true, nobody’s actually using it except for meme coins and scams.”
Snowden elaborated on his concerns, stressing that Solana’s centralization might render it susceptible to government influence or other external interventions. “If someone stakes something significant on it and governments begin to adopt it, it risks becoming a system that people can easily control,” Snowden cautioned, indicating a looming threat of censorship or asset confiscation in the future.
His key argument revolved around the need for adversarial thinking in the design of decentralized systems, particularly as crypto platforms gain heightened scrutiny from regulators and governments globally. “You must focus on the adversarial scenario rather than just the easy, convenient initial situation. This involves contemplating potential attacks and ensuring the system is resilient enough to withstand them,” he articulated.
Reactions from the Solana Community
Snowden’s comments did not go unnoticed, as prominent figures within the SOL ecosystem were quick to respond. Mert Mumtaz, co-founder and CEO of Helius Labs— a project based on Solana— took to X to counter Snowden’s assertions. “Snowden appears to believe that Solana is centralized—yet provides no data to substantiate it,” Mumtaz tweeted.
He urged those who criticize to present tangible evidence showcasing any vulnerabilities within Solana that would enable a single entity to control the network or jeopardize user assets. “I challenge anyone to pinpoint a specific attack vector that would allow a single entity to administer loss of funds or prolonged dominance over the network,” Mumtaz added, spotlighting the geographical distribution of Solana’s nodes and the variety of jurisdictions in which they operate.
While acknowledging that Bitcoin and Ethereum possess greater decentralization, he argued that this distinction does not automatically imply that Solana is at risk of the centralized control Snowden suggested. “What you could say instead is: Ethereum and Bitcoin are more decentralized than Solana — and that’s accurate. Saying Usain Bolt is faster than LeBron James in a 100m dash doesn’t imply that LeBron is slow,” Mumtaz remarked.
He pointed to recent advancements in the diversity of Solana’s clients, citing the launch of “frankendancer” on the mainnet, along with the forthcoming “Firedancer” client, which enhances the network’s decentralization. He concluded his response by asserting, “If the network is as centralized as claimed, worth tens of billions—go ahead and attempt to attack it if you can!”
As of the time of writing, SOL was trading at $143.
Featured image from YouTube, chart from TradingView.com
