Famous whistleblower and former CIA employee Edward Snowden values privacy above all. This is why when speaking about cryptocurrencies, Snowden is especially interested in those that are anonymous. Snowden believes that Zcash is as close as it gets to a truly private cryptocurrency, with zero-knowledge proofs being the future of trading.
"I'm with Vitalik Buterin. Zcash's privacy tech makes it the most interesting Bitcoin alternative. Bitcoin is great, but if it's not private, it's not safe."
Zcash endorsements
It seems that people are starting to rally behind Zcash. Snowden?s support comes after John McAfee endorsed Zcash as well, together with Monero and Dash. According to McAfee, private and anonymous cryptocurrencies will act as a barrier to government control of the market.
more:https://dowbit.com/edward-snowden-zcash-most-interesting-bitcoin-alternative/
Privacy coins is a must on the industry to avoid the government to take control the whole cryptocurrency enconomy. On the other side, about illegal transactions? Maybe this can be use on terrorism or drugs and since it is private, no traces could be found. I understand Mr. Snowden but on the other hand this also had disadvantages that is more worse than it's pros.