Tooze considers it ironic that the US National Security Agency developed crucial software to hide and compress information. Sociologist Donald MacKenzie thinks that the steps contained by SHA-256 are too simple to hide a side door.
British economic historian Adam Tooze recently asked whether Bitcoin had a side door. Although private developers were primarily those who built and maintained the network, it is essentially a public good.
He stated in the blog that it is an open-source protocol, and anyone can enter it through a wide-open front door. However, he also wondered whether there was a side door for a privileged group that wanted to gain more control over Bitcoin.
Adam Tooze, a professor at Columbia University, was born in London, England, in 1967. He graduated in economics from King’s College, Cambridge. He received his doctorate from the London School of Economics with a thesis on the statistical history of Germany.
In addition, the historian holds the Shelby Cullom Davis Chair in History at Columbia University, where he serves as Director.
In 2019, the Foreign Policy magazine named Tooze as one of the leading thinkers of the decade worldwide.
Adam Tooze Gives His Opinion on the Pioneering Cryptocurrency
Tooze, a fiat money advocate interested in the democratic policy of money, recently gave his opinion on Bitcoin. He said that he viewed cryptocurrencies primarily in terms of the mistrust towards governments expressed by crypto advocates and the artificial scarcity of Bitcoin issuance.
He considers that its fixed upper limit of 21 million coins is arbitrary, causing Bitcoin to be much more restrictive and deflationary than gold. In that regard, he stated that the gold stock has proved to be something that can further expand.
He Wonders Whether the Government Can Control Bitcoin
Tooze considers it ironic that the US National Security Agency (NSA) and other state organizations developed some crucial attributes of Bitcoin.
In particular, he refers to a hash function called SHA-256 that Bitcoin uses. It allows users to hide and compress information through a mathematical hashing operation.
He wonders why the NSA created that central piece of software on Bitcoin, a currency system supposedly designed to minimize government dependence. He says that that should change the narrative of cryptocurrencies since he finds Bitcoin policies deceptive.
That Has Also Caught the Attention of Donald MacKenzie
Adam Tooze stated the only other person that expressed his view on the participation of the NSA in the creation of SHA-256 was Donald MacKenzie.
The sociologist said nobody has to be too paranoid to think about the link between Bitcoin and that leading code-breaking intelligence agency. However, he thinks there is no reason to worry that the NSA has built a flaw to decrypt SHA-256 encrypted messages.
Likewise, MacKenzie added that the US National Institute of Standards and Technology made the algorithm public. He explained that the steps it contains are so simple that it would be hard to hide a side door.
Adam Tooze replied that he respects Donald MacKenzie but considers crucial problems. He believes that state agencies should not participate in cryptocurrency projects looking to replace the trust in the government.
The creation of Bitcoin and other decentralized cryptocurrencies aimed to avoid government control and authoritarianism. Since state intelligence agencies helped create crucial software for the Bitcoin network, doubts have arisen among analysts.
By Alexander Salazar
