On April 30, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) detained Roger Ver, a trailblazing investor in bitcoin, on accusations of tax evasion and submitting fraudulent tax returns. The following update is accompanied by a statement from Bitcoin.com regarding the allegations against the company’s founder. Bitcoin Investor Roger Ver Charged With Tax Evasion According to […]
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Roger Stone Endorses TRUMP Meme Token, Spurs Double-Digit Growth Amid Market Slump
Roger Stone, a seasoned Republican political strategist, lobbyist, and former adviser to Donald Trump’s campaign, has endorsed the meme coin TRUMP on X, sparking a 17% increase in its value amid a wider downturn in the cryptocurrency market. Meanwhile, the meme token BODEN experienced a 9% uptick against the U.S. dollar over the last 24 […]
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Roger Ver Rejects Blockstream CEO’s Invitation, Remains Loyal to Bitcoin Cash Over BTC
Roger Ver, an early Bitcoin investor, has decided to continue supporting Bitcoin Cash (BCH) over Bitcoin (BTC) despite an invitation from Blockstream CEO Adam Back to rejoin the Bitcoin community. Ver criticizes layer two blockchain solutions, like Back’s Liquid Network, as centralized or unreliable, maintaining that bitcoin cash more closely aligns with the original vision […]
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Roger Ver’s New Book Tops Amazon’s New Releases, Memoir Dives Deep Into Bitcoin Controversies
Crypto entrepreneur and Bitcoin.com founder, Roger Ver, has recently unveiled the publication of a 304-page book titled “Hijacking Bitcoin: The Hidden History of BTC,” offering a fresh viewpoint that diverges from commonly accepted historical accounts. This book provides readers with an alternate perspective, challenging the traditional narratives surrounding Bitcoin’s evolution and history. Exploring Bitcoin’s History […]
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Roger Ver Joins Leading Innovators at Upbit D Conference 2023
PRESS RELEASE. The future of blockchain comes into focus at the Upbit D Conference (UDC), where Roger Ver, a leading figure in the crypto space and Founder of Bitcoin.com, will take the stage at Grand Walkerhill Seoul, Korea.
Since its inception in 2018, UDC has transformed from an exclusive developer gathering to a comprehensive platform, welcoming all who are keen on digital assets, decentralization, and development.
The conference, organized by Korea’s premier cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, will host speakers that are leaders in their respective fields, including:
- Roger Ver, Bitcoin.com Founder
- Usman Asim, Ava Labs
- Leemon Baird, Swirlds Labs
- Sebastien Borget, The Sandbox
And many more!
In addition to exploring emerging trends and multifaceted aspects of blockchain, attendees will have the opportunity to network.
Roger Ver, Founder of Bitcoin.com, expressed his enthusiasm for the event, saying, “The convergence of professionals and enthusiasts at UDC sets the stage for groundbreaking discussions. Let’s come together to push the boundaries of what’s possible in blockchain towards creating a future with greater economic freedom.”
UpBit Executive Director Harold Kim commented, “Roger Ver’s pioneering work in the cryptocurrency space and instrumental role in funding and supporting the growth of blockchain businesses makes him a unique and valuable voice for our audience. Roger’s insights and unwavering commitment to innovation align perfectly with our conference’s mission, and we anticipate his participation will spark inspiring and thought-provoking discussions.”
The Upbit D Conference 2023 is designed as a hybrid event, offering tailored content to suit both virtual and physical participation. The conference will be presented in Korean and English, with live interpretation between the two languages.
Tickets for UDC 2023 will open on Monday, September 11, 2023, at 10:00 AM KST. Don’t miss the chance to experience the future of blockchain at the Upbit D Conference. For more information and to buy tickets, please visit https://udc.upbit.com/en.
About Upbit D Conference
Upbit D Conference is an annual international blockchain event hosted by Dunamu, the operator of Upbit – the most prominent digital asset exchange in Korea. Since 2018, the conference has been a beacon for facilitating growth in the Korean blockchain ecosystem. With a focus on expansion, UDC continues to explore and celebrate the multifaceted possibilities within the blockchain industry.
About Roger Ver
Roger Ver is a pioneering figure in the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain. His company, MemoryDealers, was the first established business globally to accept Bitcoin for payments, marking a significant milestone in the adoption of cryptocurrency. Ver’s vision and investment acumen nearly single-handedly funded the entire first generation of Bitcoin and blockchain enterprises, including Bitcoin.com, Blockchain.com, Bitpay, Kraken, Purse.io, and many others. These businesses have since raised hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funding, serving tens of millions of customers worldwide. Known for his unwavering commitment to economic freedom and innovation, Roger Ver continues to be a leading voice and advocate in the blockchain community. His contributions and leadership have played an instrumental role in shaping the industry, driving it toward greater accessibility and impact.
This is a press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release.
Roger Ver at Webx Asia: Reflections on Payments, Self-Custody, and the Role of Crypto Lawbreakers
When asked whether he’d rather be called a “bitcoin evangelist,” or “Bitcoin Jesus” at the recent Webx seminar in Tokyo, Roger Ver responds: “I prefer to be called Roger.” The enthusiastic and outspoken figure in crypto, scattering sats around the world with unapologetic frankness about government, the bitcoin block size wars, and conflations of legality with morality, Roger Ver has been somewhat quiet in recent months. That notwithstanding, the early bitcoin investor had much to say about the state of crypto in Tokyo this week, talking payments, altcoins, FTX, and the role of literal outlaws in changing the world for the better.
‘I Am Not Satoshi Nakamoto’
Taking the stage at the Tokyo International Forum on Tuesday, pioneering Bitcoin investor Roger Ver reassured journalist Kazumoto Ohno that he is indeed, not Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. However, according to Ver, the Bank of Japan did contact him early on, around 2012 — having heard he was promoting bitcoin in Japan — asking to meet with the enigmatic bitcoin mastermind. “I realized that they hadn’t even done much research at all, at that point,” Ver remarked.
When Ohno inquired whether crypto had evolved over the past 10 to 12 years as Ver expected it to, the Bitcoin.com founder noted that “we’ve made a huge amount of progress, but it didn’t happen quite as quickly as I thought it was going to in the early days,” further reflecting that “the world changes very, very quickly, so make sure you enjoy the journey.”
To Ver’s thinking, which idea he credits to American computer scientist Ray Kurzweil: “we always overestimate the amount of progress we’re going to make in the short-term, but we underestimate the amount of progress we’ll make in the long term — and I think that’s been true of my experience in crypto.”
BTC’s Loss of Utility and the Critical Importance of Censorship Resistance
Ver also weighed in on why he thinks what is now known as “Bitcoin” (BTC) is heading in the wrong direction, and why “Bitcoin Cash is the original Bitcoin,” citing the unwieldy fees attendant to BTC transactions, and the Bitcoin white paper. He emphasized:
It’s become a speculative asset … whereas [as] we heard from other people on the previous panel: payments, payments, payments is the underlying utility that makes these cryptocurrencies so useful.
Ver pointed to the asset’s loss of market dominance and nodded to the fall of defunct social media platform Myspace when the user experience suffered, and consumers left for greener pastures. BTC, in other words, is still cruising largely on its “brand recognition,” as Ver puts it, and maximalist cliques even go so far as to mock people for wanting to make peer-to-peer payments with Satoshi’s permissionless peer-to-peer payments protocol.
Meanwhile, as Chainalysis Japan’s Hayato Shigekawa warned of the dangers of darknet marketplaces (DNMs) and other “illicit” uses of crypto at the same massive 2-day conference, Ver credited DNMs with bringing the utility of bitcoin payments to the masses in the beginning, noting that “If you look at what brought bitcoin to the world in the first place, it was these darknet markets that were using it for illegal commerce … today almost none of them use bitcoin, they’re using things like monero or other coins, and that’s a sign that bitcoin isn’t as useful for payments as it used to be.” Ver emphasized:
Whether it’s monero, or bitcoin cash, or ethereum or whatever else, there’s a huge, giant wide world out there and people having more choices is a good thing … and if people want to speculate on BTC, have at it. If you want to speculate on something else, more power to you … We have a decentralized set of currencies, and you can choose which one of those cryptocurrencies or protocols you want to use, and that’s a good thing.
Thoughts on FTX and the Importance of Rule-Breakers for Human Progress
Ohno broached the topic of FTX toward the end of the fireside chat, asking Ver: “How would you see the impact of the FTX debacle on those who were about to invest in cryptocurrency? Did it scare them away?” Ver replied that it did scare some away, but pointed out that the collapse of FTX is really nothing new, citing Mt Gox, Celsius, and other previous collapses, and pointing out that the same thing happens in traditional finance.
“It happens in traditional finance, it happened to crypto finance, but that’s why self-custody, or at least having the ability to hold the cryptocurrency yourself is so incredibly important,” Ver said, elaborating: “and that’s one more example why chains that are very scalable with low fees make it easier for people to hold the crypto themselves.”
Bitcoin.com CEO Dennis Jarvis would echo this sentiment the next day on another stage at the Tokyo International Forum, declaring that “Really the ethos of bitcoin and crypto is self-custody of funds,” and stating that while centralized exchanges can fulfill a role, the goal is to make it so that crypto holders “are not stuck in Web2.0 crypto” with their funds constantly at risk due to lack of custody.
Emphasizing that a real-life physical wallet allows one to control their own paper money directly, Roger Ver cautioned against confusing true crypto wallets with mere “accounts” such as those on centralized exchanges and at traditional banks. “The moment I take the money out of this wallet, and I give it to UFJ Mitsubishi [bank], now they have my money and I am at their mercy … You’re completely out of control as soon as you turn over your money to somebody else.”
Ver ended the fireside echoing a point he had made earlier on in the interview, when he noted:
So, the world we live in you have to play by all the regulations, because if you don’t men with guns will send you to jail … but that doesn’t mean that you have a moral obligation to obey those rules and regulations.
Explaining that when bitcoin came along “it was too exciting to stay quiet politically any longer,” Ver called on the audience — peopled with those present to hear talks from politicians and startups on government regulation of crypto — to stand up for what they believe in:
I want to point out to everybody, that just because politicians get together and they write down words on a piece of paper and call it a law, it doesn’t change morality. Right is right and wrong is wrong regardless of what the politicians say. And if you see something that’s wrong, stand up there and say ‘no, this is wrong, this is not okay, we should not do that.’
In doing this, Ver said that maybe others who felt the same but were too afraid to speak out would be encouraged to do so. Connecting regulations on economic freedom to other laws viewed as unjust, Roger Ver reflected on his time in federal prison in the United States, when he was incarcerated with several other non-violent human beings, some of whom were placed behind bars for cannabis, a simple plant.
“Thats how all human society moves forward — it’s by the lawbreakers and the people who are willing to disobey bad laws, that the laws get changed,” he noted. Ver interrupted the event’s emcee after the official finish of the talk to add one more point:
It’s still early days in the worldwide adoption of cryptocurrency … tell your friends, tell your family, show them how cryptocurrencies work … explain to them why cryptocurrencies are better than government-issued currencies and why competition leads to better quality products that more people around the world get to use. So it’s up to all of us, to go out there and continue to push this forward to the world, so that the world becomes a better place, sooner rather than later.
What are your thoughts on Roger Ver’s talk at Webx Asia? Be sure to let us know in the comments section below.
The Inside Story Of The Roger Ver Vs. CoinFLEX Conflict
The infamous Roger Ver is back in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Like many players in the industry, the derivatives exchange CoinFLEX recently ran into financial trouble. Surprisingly, they blamed it all on Roger Ver and the circus started. Luckily for us, Chinese journalist Colin Wu covered “the entire insider details through a source close to the situation” in his newsletter. However, as you can see, it’s an anonymous source. So, take the story we’re about to analyze with a grain of salt.
The summary of the situation according to Wu:
“On June 24, 2022, the exchange CoinFLEX announced that it made the decision to halt user withdraws, and the price of the platform Token FLEX subsequently plummeted, from .30 to less than .50 in four hours. At the same time, FlexUSD, the platform’s stablecoin, also began to de-peg, with prices dropping as low as .23.”
The funny thing is that both entities were clearly in business together. On May 14th, Roger Ver tweeted, “Interest paying FlexUSD by CoinFLEX is on its way to being the default stable coin for the whole SmartBCH ecosystem if USDT & USDC don’t move quickly.” How did everything deteriorate so fast? That’s what this article’s about.
Interest paying #FlexUSD by @CoinFLEXdotcom is on its way to being the default stable coin for the whole @SmartBCH ecosystem if #USDT & #USDC don’t move quickly.https://t.co/HG14Ik6U0o
— Roger Ver (@rogerkver) May 14, 2022
Roger Ver Vs. CoinFLEX, The Play By Play
The story starts with CoinFLEX announcing to their partners that they “opened a special account for Roger Ver.” The account’s characteristics guaranteed that Roger Ver “would not be liquidated immediately if it fell below the maintenance margin, but rather that he would be given sufficient time to make a margin call.” Nothing special here, the man is a high-net-worth individual, deals like this are a dime a dozen in high finance.
As a guarantee, Roger Ver offered “a margin of BCH,” valued “at around 0.” Then, the Terra collapse happened and the whole crypto market crashed. By the time CoinFLEX ”faced a liquidity crisis,” Bitcoin Cash was worth around 0. It’s still at that price range at the time of writing. This is where things get insane. The biggest revelation of Wu’s story is at the end of this paragraph.
“If that were all, CoinFLEX would have been able to cover its shortfall. However, prior to this, CoinFLEX had issued its own stablecoin, FlexUSD, like other exchanges. At this point, CoinFLEX used FlexUSD to buy a large amount of FLEX from the secondary market and opened short position to hedge the spot price. However, the counterparty to this short position was also Roger Ver!”
As we’ve seen happen again and again, “when the withdrawal restriction announcement was made, CoinFLEX’s total funds began to fall in a cyclical fashion.” And all hell broke loose.
BCH price chart on Coinbase | Source: BCH/USD on TradingView.com
An All-Out Twitter War
On June 27th, the company’s CEO Mark Lamb tweeted, “CoinFLEX made the decision to halt user withdrawals on June 23, shortly after a long-time customer of CoinFLEX went into negative equity. ” Immediately after, the rumor that Roger Ver was that “long-time customer” began circulating.
Recently some rumors have been
spreading that I have defaulted on a
debt to a counter-party. These rumors
are false. Not only do I not have a debt
to this counter-party, but this counter-
party owes me a substantial sum of
money, and I am currently seeking the
return of my funds.— Roger Ver (@rogerkver) June 28, 2022
The Bitcoin Cash leader went on the offensive and tweeted a statement obviously written by a lawyer. “Recently some rumors have been spreading that I have defaulted on a debt to a counter-party. These rumors are false. Not only do I not have a debt to this counter-party, but this counter-party owes me a substantial sum of money, and I am currently seeking the return of my funds.” How could those two statements be true? Remember that “the counterparty to this short position was also Roger Ver!”
He had a long track record of previously topping up margin and meeting margin requirements in accordance with this agreement. We have been speaking to him on calls frequently about this situation with the aim of resolving it. We still would like to resolve it.
— Mark Lamb
(@MarkDavidLamb) June 28, 2022
However, Mark Lamb was not having it. Even though both parties were negotiating, Lamb took to Twitter and stated, “CoinFLEX also categorically denies that we have any debts owing to him.” Plus, “Roger Ver owes CoinFLEX Million USDC. We have a written contract with him obligating him to personally guarantee any negative equity on his CoinFLEX account and top up margin regularly.”
Even if CoinFLEX is right in this instance, did they have to air their dirty laundry in public?
Roger Ver Vs. CoinFLEX, The Aftermath
Back to Colin Wu’s newsletter:
“In the end, Roger Ver’s position was completely worn out and turned into negative equity, while CoinFLEX was left with a lot of delisting FLEX. It was revealed that CoinFLEX had a real loss of 0 million, including losses from the de-peg of the stablecoin FlexUSD and the loss of withdrawals (less than million) due to the collapse of the SmartBCH cross-chain bridge, which was built by CoinFLEX.”
And the fact of the matter is that, even if Roger Ver’s debt caused this, CoinFLEX’s risk management team has a few questions to answer. “Roger Ver became almost the only counterparty to the exchange, and this only counterparty had the privilege of not replenishing the margin in time,” Wu concludes. It was an unfortunate sequence of events, but both parties signed those deals and both parties took to Twitter to resolve what should’ve been a private matter.
Shame all around.
Featured Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay | Charts by TradingView
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Crypto Tribalism Intensifies as Community Bashes CNBC For Hosting Roger Ver
It appears that the crypto community is very easily riled these days. A 50% collapse in total crypto market capitalization in the latter half of the year may have something to do with it, while a recent interview on CNBC with Roger Ver has kicked of another bout of twitter tribalism over Bitcoin Cash.
Bitcoin Jesus Shilling On Mainstream
The interview in question was headlined ‘Bitcoin Cash can go up a thousand times from where it is now: ‘Bitcoin Jesus’’ which is not usually something CNBC would run. Ver starts off stating that both BTC and BCH are up over double this year and that cryptocurrencies are here to stay.
In the same breath he jumps straight onto the Bitcoin Cash shill train
“The real interesting one is Bitcoin Cash. I think it has the ability to go up a thousand times where it is currently because it’s looking to become peer to peer electronic cash for the entire world.”
Ver then goes on to cite Warren Buffets famous ‘be greedy when others are fearful’ quote presumably in reference to the rock bottom BCH prices at the moment.
The host went on to ask whether there had been any major differentiation in usage between the two rival digital assets. ‘Bitcoin Jesus’ continued with his bashing of the coin that spawned his offshoot;
“The smart money is going into Bitcoin Cash because it has the economic characteristics that made Bitcoin popular to begin with. What everybody is calling Bitcoin today is just Bitcoin in name only. The technology and user experience that made Bitcoin popular is called Bitcoin Cash today,”
Crypto Community Reaction
The crypto community was not going to take this lying down and several threads were kicked off in a twit-storm including this one;
“Hey @JoeSquawk whats up with this reporting on bcash by CNBC? Roger is saying factually incorrect information about adoption and identity.”
Hey @JoeSquawk whats up with this reporting on bcash by CNBC? Roger is saying factually incorrect information about adoption and identity. https://t.co/Ros1O8Uihs
— Dan Hedl (@danheld) November 27, 2019
Some of the arguments against Ver’s claims were pretty pertinent and included a hash rate comparison of the two.
The crypto tribalism intensified with further comments increasing in vehemence;
“Did CNBC get paid out of the 200M ‘dev fund’ for this propaganda piece?”
From a price aspect, Bitcoin surged 260% this year before dumping 45%. BCH on the other hand managed just over 200% before dumping 56% in 2019 so big brother is clearly the winner in terms of performance.
It is uncharacteristic of CNBC to shill another altcoin with such leading headline but Ver is a prominent industry figure whatever people think of him.
The entire incident reemphasizes that crypto tribalism is still alive and kicking. Instead of bickering over which blockchain is better, energy would be better spent focused on the real enemies here which are the banks and governments that currently control the world’s money.
Image from Shutterstock
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Roger Ver Apparently Thinks Bitcoin Cash Value Could Increase 100,000
n In a recent giveaway, Bitcoin Cash proponent Roger Ver said that worth of the coin could be worth ,000 someday, an increase of almost 100,000n
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Roger Ver’s Bitcoin.com is Reportedly Under Government-Sponsored Attack
Bitcoin.com is likely under a government-sponsored cyber attack, according to owner and crypto investor Roger Ver.
The 40-year old Tokyo-based entrepreneur stated Monday that he received a Google Suite alert about a potential intrusion. He posted a screenshot, indicating that anonymous government-backed hackers were attempting to compromise one of the Bitcoin.com’s email accounts. Here’s the copy of that screenshot:
“Because Bitcoin.com is building tools to bring economic freedom to the world, we are likely under government-backed attacks,” Ver guessed.
Espionage on Bitcoin.com
Following a major revamp of its security protocols in 2017, Google now sends alerts for government-sponsored cyber attacks when it detects malware-loaded emails, phishing attempts, or brute force attacks. With government, Google signifies attacks carried out from the infrastructure of identifiable government-linked cyber espionage associations – known as Advanced Persistent Threats, or APT.
The definitions collectively explain that unknown attackers were attempting to gain access to Bitcoin.com’s data across GSuite. It may include emails, docs, spreadsheets, sites, presentations, and most importantly, cloud-enabled file backups. A successful hacking attempt could have led the attackers to access all the data at once, according to Google.
Eric Grosse, the vice president of security engineering at Google, wrote that seeing a government-sponsored attack warning did not necessarily mean that hackers have attacked users’ accounts. It could also suggest that they may be a target and must take immediate steps to secure their profiles.
“You might ask how we know this activity is state-sponsored,” added Grosse. “We can’t go into the details without giving away information that would be helpful to these bad actors, but our detailed analysis—as well as victim reports—strongly suggest the involvement of states or groups that are state-sponsored.”
Conspiracy Theories
In theory, Google must have a database of internet protocol addresses suspicious of participating in cyber attacks. They must have recognized at least some of these addresses as government-owned in the wake of mounting incidents related to cyber warfare, government espionage, and even corporate espionage. Considering no smart attacker would ever expose its IP links, there could be a possibility that some random hacker attempted to hack bitcoin.com’s GSuite server.
“They might not necessarily be government backed but a website of Bitcoin.com size is bound to attract attackers, regardless,” Redditor Ragnarok1066 noted. “Since Google doesn’t really tell you how they know it’s a government attack you don’t really have much information to go on.”
Then, there are some who seconded Ver about the possibilities of government or corporate espionage. One of them blamed China, an easy target for its notorious history of cyber attacks.
“What worries me about this is that I give it about an 80% chance this means China, as Google have a very weak track record when it comes to calling out the US government,” said Redditor Etherael. “Why would China be attacking bitcoin.com? I would have assumed China was aligned with Bitmain, and thus by extension at least neutral to bitcoin.com?”
In the end, it remains uncertain who attempted to attack bitcoin.com. Meanwhile, the situation demands a strong reaction not just from Ver but the operators of other crypto-related businesses as well.
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