Roger Ver

Roger Keith Ver (born January 27, 1979[1]) is an early investor in bitcoin, bitcoin-related startups and an early promoter of bitcoin.[2] He has been known as "Bitcoin Jesus" for his promotion of bitcoin.[2] He now promotes Bitcoin Cash.[3]

Roger Ver
Ver, December 2016
Born (1979-01-27) January 27, 1979
San Jose, California, U.S.
Nationality
OccupationEntrepreneur
Known forPromoting bitcoin
MovementLibertarianism, anarcho-capitalism, voluntaryism
Websiterogerver.com

Born and raised in Silicon Valley, he sold explosives on eBay and later pleaded guilty to three related felony charges.[4] He served 10 months in prison, then moved to Japan in 2005. He renounced his United States citizenship in 2014 after obtaining a Saint Kitts and Nevis passport. He went on to serve as CEO of Bitcoin.com.[5]

Personal life

Ver was born in San Jose, California. He attended De Anza College for a year, dropping out to pursue his business interests. He identifies as a libertarian, an anarcho-capitalist, peace advocate, and an advocate for individualism and voluntaryism. He moved to Japan in 2005 after serving a 10-month prison sentence for illegally selling explosives.[4][6] He renounced his United States citizenship in 2014 after he became a citizen of Saint Kitts and Nevis.[7][8] In 2015, he was denied a visa to reenter the United States by the U.S. Embassy in Barbados, which claimed that he had not sufficiently proven ties outside of the United States that would motivate him to leave at the end of his visit, causing fears he might become an illegal immigrant.[6][8][9] Later in the same year his visa was approved by the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, and he visited the United States in June 2016 to speak at a conference in Denver, Colorado. In 2019 Ver was denied a visa to travel to Australia.[10]

According to an interview he gave in 2016, Ver describes Brazilian jiu-jitsu as one of his major passions in life. Ver can be seen in videos competing in BJJ world championships[11] and has achieved the rank of brown belt.[12]

In 2018 he was ranked number 36 in Fortune's The Ledger 40 under 40[13] for transforming business at the leading edge of finance and technology.

Career

MemoryDealers.com

He was the CEO of MemoryDealers.com from 1999 until 2012.[14] In 2000, he attempted to enter politics by running for California State Assembly as a candidate for the Libertarian Party.[15]

Explosives

In 2002, Ver pleaded guilty to selling explosives without a license, to illegally storing explosives, and to mailing the explosives. Ver bought 49 pounds of "Pest Control Report 2000" explosives, sold at least 14 pounds of them as large firecrackers on eBay, stored the explosives in a residential apartment building, and mailed them to customers via the U.S. Postal Service. He was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison.[7][6][4][16]

Cryptocurrency

Ver began investing in bitcoin in early 2011.[2] The first investment he made was for Charlie Shrem’s Bitinstant.[17] Ver's investment allowed the company to hire a designer and another programmer.[18] He invested over a million dollars into new bitcoin related startups including Ripple, Blockchain.info, Bitpay[19] and Kraken.[7] In 2011, Ver's company Memorydealers was the first to accept bitcoin as payment.[20] His early advocacy for bitcoin earned him the moniker of Bitcoin Jesus.[2] He has been a prominent supporter of bitcoin adoption and saw bitcoin as a means to promote economic freedom.

In 2012, Ver was organising bitcoin meetups in Sunnyvale.[21] He is one of five founders of the Bitcoin Foundation.[22] Ver wants bitcoin to rival major fiat currencies.

He is one of the main proponents of a larger block size. He supported the development of Bitcoin XT as a hard fork method towards an increase. Ver and his high school friend Jesse Powell attempted to re-establish the Mt Gox exchange during the June 2011 bitcoin price crash.[21]

Ver served as CEO of Bitcoin.com[23] until August 1 2019, at which point he transitioned to Executive Chairman. Fortune Magazine in early 2020 referred to Roger Ver as the co-creator of Bitcoin Cash.[24]

Donations

In late 2013, Ver donated more than $1 million worth of bitcoin to the Foundation for Economic Education.[2]

See also

References
  1. "California Birth Index of Roger Keith Ver".
  2. Ansuya Harjani (2 December 2013). "Meet 'Bitcoin Jesus,' a virtual currency millionaire". CNBC. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
  3. Popper, Nathaniel (25 July 2017). "Some Bitcoin Backers Are Defecting to Create a Rival Currency". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 28 July 2017.
  4. "San Jose, California Man Pleads Guilty to Selling Explosives on eBay". U.S. Department of Justice, United States Attorney, Northern District of California. 2 May 2002. Archived from the original on 13 February 2015.
  5. "Bitcoin Cash Advocate Roger Ver Considers Launching Own Exchange". Bloomberg. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
  6. Sparkes, Matthew (7 January 2015). "Millionaire 'Bitcoin Jesus' denied entry to the US". Telegraph (UK).
  7. Jason Clenfield; Pavel Alpeyev (16 June 2014). "'Bitcoin Jesus' Calls Rich to Tax-Free Tropical Paradise". Bloomberg. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
  8. Minsky, David (16 January 2015). "U.S. Won't Let "Bitcoin Jesus" Who Renounced His Citizenship Come To Miami For Conference". Miami New Times (blog).
  9. Farivar, Cyrus (7 January 2015). "Bitcoin investor who renounced US citizenship now can't get back in: Roger Ver gave up US passport in favor of St. Kitts last year". Ars Technica.
  10. Twitter Post by Ver, 24 July 2019
  11. triforcebjj (31 May 2013), Roger Ver vs David Garmo in 2013 BJJ World Championships, retrieved 2 October 2018
  12. "Roger Ver, World's first Investor in Bitcoin On His Passion For BJJ & Brown Belt". Bjj Eastern Europe. 1 December 2017. Retrieved 2 October 2018.
  13. "Fortune The Ledger 40 under 40: Roger Ver". 29 July 2018.
  14. Cyrus Farivar (1 August 2015). "Bitcoin investor who renounced US citizenship now can't get back in". ArsTechnica. Wired Media Group. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
  15. SmartVoter (3 February 2000). "Voter Information for Roger K Ver". League of Women Voters.
  16. Max Raskin (13 April 2013). "Meet the Bitcoin Millionaires". Bloomberg. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
  17. Adrianne Jeffries (13 December 2011). "Brooklyn-Based Bitcoin Startup BitInstant Raises Seed Round". Observer. Observer Media. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
  18. Kyle Russell (29 January 2014). "Meet The 'Bitcoin Millionaire' Arrested For Allegedly Helping Silk Road Launder $US1 Million". Business Insider Australia. Allure Media. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
  19. Lunden, Ingrid. "With PayPal-Like Ambitions For Bitcoin, BitPay Raises $2M Led By Founders Fund". TechCrunch. Retrieved 14 August 2017.
  20. Robert McMillan (19 December 2013). "How Bitcoin Became the Honey Badger of Money". Wired. Conde Nast. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  21. Vigna, Paul; Michael J. Casey (2015). The Age of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and Digital Money Are Challenging the Global Economic Order. St. Martin's Press. pp. 178, 268. ISBN 146687306X. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
  22. Farivar, Cyrus (7 April 2015). "Bitcoin Foundation is "effectively bankrupt," board member says". ArsTechnica. Condé Nast. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
  23. Cheng, Evelyn (11 December 2017). "'Bitcoin Jesus' is 'really, really concerned' about the future of the digital currency". CNBC. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
  24. Morris, David (8 January 2020). "In Cryptocurrency, It's Bitcoiners vs. Everyone Else". Fortune.com. Retrieved 2 February 2020.

"Episode 687: Buy This Passport". Planet Money. 10 March 2016.

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