Edward Snowden accuses Solana blockchain of low security

Edward Snowden, a well-known American whistleblower and former National Security Agency (NSA) employee, has criticized the Solana blockchain network SOL $137.65 Solana -5.59% Market capitalization $64.49 billion VOL. 24 hours $0.59 billion for its centralization, claiming that the project puts speed and efficiency above security.

Speaking at the Token 2049 conference, Snowden said that Solana sacrifices decentralization for faster speed and lower cost, which could become a weakness of the network if states decide to intervene.

Snowden’s comments sparked a reaction among the Solana community, including from Helius Labs co-founder Mert Mumtaz, who denied the NSA whistleblower’s allegations. Mumtaz argues that while Solana may be less decentralized than the Bitcoin BTC $60,903.91 Bitcoin -0.33% Market capitalization $1.2 trillion VOL. 24 hours $1.95 billion or Ethereum ETH $2,369.45 Bridged Ether (StarkGate) -3.73% Market capitalization $0.18 billion VOL. 24 hours $0.86 billion blockchains, it is not vulnerable to a single player attack.

However, critics, including the developers of Cardano ADA $0.34 Cardano -2.79% Market capitalization $12.19 billion VOL. 24 hours $36.57 million , point to possible weaknesses in Solana’s consensus mechanism. They believe that unscrupulous players can affect the network’s operation if they control one-third of the assets that verify transactions. Mumtaz believes such claims are unfounded due to Solana’s high market capitalization.

Despite the controversy, the Solana community continues to work to overcome these challenges, including by launching a new validator, Firedancer, which should increase the network’s decentralization and stability.