Is Roger Ver Bitcoin Jesus... Or Crypto Satan?
WOW! Holy f@#$...
As you can probably tell by my title and opening line, I'm pretty new to this crypto stuff..
And let me just tell you, it's one hell of a ride...
I started following this about 5 years ago vaguely when my brother was "mining" this new thing called Bitcoin... he explained the process to me and I honestly thought, "Cool, but this is probably going nowhere anytime soon... in the future? Sure, maybe in the future..."
It wasn't until earlier this year though, that I really started to take notice and immerse myself in the culture of cryptocurrency.
Now, you've probably read 535,456 stories about Bitcoin and crypto. Everyone from your friends to your mom's dog are now interested in this space, and if you've been following it lately. Wow. Just wow.
People taking out 2nd mortgages, others selling their cars, and of course you have criminals (they love money)
Now the really interesting thing about this space is that even though the currencies themselves are not companies, there are usually teams and representatives/creators of the coin.
Charlie Lee with Litecoin.
I guess Andreas Antonopoulos for Bitcoin.
Vitalik Buterin for Ethereal.
And then, there's this guy...
Roger Ver.
Holy crap does Reddit and the internet hate this guy. Now keep in mind I'm new to this space so bear with me...
But from what I can tell this guy was one of the earlier investors in Bitcoin and has done well for himself... obviously. Then there's the whole thing where he is a convicted fellon for selling explosives? Wait WHAT? Hmm...
According to Wikipedia, "In 2002, Ver pleaded guilty after selling explosives, marketed as Pest Control Report 2000, on eBay, which the U.S. Department of Justice described as "dealing in explosives without a license", and he was sentenced to 10 months in federal prison."
Apparently these firecrackers or explosives were used to make birds go BOOM!
But hey, none of us are perfect right? Sometimes you just gotta explode birds I get it...
The hatred though seems to stem from a few things... in fact there's a lot of hatred stemming from so much that its hard to keep up with it...
But from what I can gather... he hangs out and supports Craig Steven Wright (A Fraudster who claimed to be Satoshi) so yeah... that rubbed the community the wrong way... people on reddit refer to him as a SNAKE OIL SALESMEN.
And of course the recent disaster that's ensued is that he is now a proponent of Bitcoin Cash. Not only that, but he's used his power and influence to go on Network News and big Online Channels to promote BCH.
And man, people really really hate him for doing this. Just go check out his twitter, the hatred is insane. They also hate him for owning bitcoin.com and then trying to CONVINCE people that bitcoin cash is the real bitcoin and that BITCOIN isn't. Why?
F@$% if I know.
From what I can tell though, apparently his argument is that BCH is better than BTC due to transaction costs (and speed maybe?), but the internet seems to say this is a flawed argument for a few reasons.
WE already have alternate coins that serve this purpose.
Bitcoin Cash is centralized.
Bitcoin is a store of value, so transaction costs and speed are honestly not a big deal (if anything it helps with market manipulation)
His face is dumb.
Bitcoin Cash is only fast right now because fewer people are on the network (although again, we already have alt coins for this)
The Lightning Network will make Bitcoin super fast when it releases.
He's in bed with the bad guys (big money)
He has said that "insider trading" is not a crime... which is like saying F@#$ U, to every day investors.
And much, much more. Just go to the Bitcoin reddit, it's overwhelming.
Now honestly, I'm quite new to the space so i can't really say.
Does he look shady? Of course he does. Watch him on network news.
He deflects questions that are valid rebuttals against BCH and says things like "it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see which coin is going to win" That's not a f#$%ing valid point bro.
Can we please stop with the condescending attitude, and he is very condescending... and nervous. Look at his eyes and hear his voice when he speaks... There's fear in there, fear of being wrong, or maybe something else who knows.
BUT, who knows. Maybe he's a super cool guy and in the end he will be proven right.
What are your thoughts?