Chelsea Manning Bullish on Bitcoin technology, but “skeptical” of economic impact

by James · July 10, 2022

Chelsea Manning became interested in Bitcoin as the project was still in its infancy, but not because of users’ disruptive ambitions or alleged payment networks.

The US activist and whistleblower, who sent classified information to Wikileaks in 2010 regarding the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, said Bitcoin appealed to her passion for cryptography and the mathematics behind information security. She had read about it in e-mail chains, and kept a curious eye on the growth.

“This is a cute, gimmicky little tool that is a proof of concept,” Manning said as she thought of Bitcoin early on, as opposed to “a way to get rich quick.”

She saw Bitcoin as an experiment in building cryptographically based networks as a decentralized way of storing information, less as a way to generate wealth through the accumulation of code. She is still on duty today.

“I have a great interest in technology [of blockchain]but the financial aspect, I’m a little more skeptical, ”Manning told Decrypt. “I just do not see how anything [that] can switch from having a certain value to not having value very quickly as a sustainable kind of system. “

The technology, Manning continued, can be used to revolutionize the sharing of information electronically, especially in terms of privacy, protection of the content of messages and verification of sources. As Bitcoin’s economy began to dominate the conversation, she became less interested.

“I went away from it because I realized that there are a lot of people who do not understand the technical aspects of this, or the security and privacy implications of this technology, but they see this as a brand that is cool to be a part of. ,” she said.

Manning is now working on the security side of a privacy infrastructure project called Nym, which uses blockchain technology and has its own original currency, which operates a network that encrypts data.

Another way she sees benefit in ledger technology is by making private messaging apps more secure by eliminating a single fault point for systems. Using peer-to-peer networks, it would not be possible for messaging systems to stop working if servers went down in a particular location, unlike centralized messaging systems such as Signal.

Ensuring people’s ability to be activists or journalists is one of the biggest benefits of systems built using blockchain technology, Manning said. Projects like Nym, which use digital tokens to run the service and mix up pieces of information in an impossible way, are not built around profitability, but rather functionality.

While Manning sees a lot of overlap between cryptocurrencies and the privacy community, privacy experts have expressed concern about cryptocurrencies due to potential financial incentives.

“People jump on board, they get really excited and they make money as soon as it starts to fall, and I think that kind of thing keeps a lot of the more privacy-oriented, more security-oriented people away,” Manning said.

While she is involved in Nym from a security point of view, she maintains that she has no financial ownership interest in the project. “I want to keep it that way,” she added, “so I can maintain some objectivity as a security expert.”