According to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) have the potential to "casually [annihilate] the savings of every wage-worker" in the country if they are not spent quickly enough. CBDCs are digital currencies backed by a central bank's monetary reserves. Snowden called the shift to a cashless economy a "perversion" of Cryptocurrency's founding principles. The growing interest in CBDCs shows no signs of abating.