Roger Ver
Roger Keith Ver (born 27 January [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]
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 He renounced his United States citizenship in after obtaining a Saint Kitts and Nevis passport. He went on to serve as CEO of tallerembajador.com.mx[5]
Personal life[edit]
Ver was born in San Jose, California. He attended Valley Christian High School. He then 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.[citation needed] He moved to Japan in after serving a month prison sentence for illegally selling explosives.[4][6]
Ver renounced his United States citizenship in after he became a citizen of Saint Kitts and Nevis.[7][8] In , 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 to speak at a conference in Denver, Colorado.[citation needed] Ver's name was published in the Q1 Quarterly Publication of Individuals Who Have Chosen to Expatriate.[10] In Ver was denied a visa to travel to Australia.[11]
According to an interview he gave in , Ver describes Brazilian jiu-jitsu as one of his major passions in life. Ver can be seen in videos competing in BJJ world championships[12] and has achieved the rank of brown belt.[13]
In he was ranked number 36 in Fortune's The Ledger 40 under 40[14] for transforming business at the leading edge of finance and technology.
Career[edit]
tallerembajador.com.mx[edit]
He was the CEO of tallerembajador.com.mx from until [15] In , he attempted to enter politics by running for California State Assembly as a candidate for the Libertarian Party.[16]
Explosives[edit]
In , Ver pleaded guilty to selling explosives without a license, illegally storing explosives, and mailing the explosives. Ver bought 49 pounds of "Pest Control Report " 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][17]
Cryptocurrency[edit]
Ver began investing in bitcoin in early [2] The first investment he made was for Charlie Shrem’s Bitinstant.[18] Ver's investment allowed the company to hire a designer and another programmer.[19] He invested over a million dollars into new bitcoin related startups including Ripple, tallerembajador.com.mx, Bitpay[20] and Kraken.[7] In , Ver's company Memorydealers was the first to accept bitcoin as payment.[21] 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 , Ver was organizing bitcoin meetups in Sunnyvale.[22] He is one of five founders of the Bitcoin Foundation.[23] 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 bitcoin price crash.[22]
Ver served as CEO of tallerembajador.com.mx[24] until 1 August , at which point he transitioned to Executive Chairman. Fortune Magazine in early referred to Roger Ver as the co-creator of Bitcoin Cash.[25]
Donations[edit]
In late , Ver donated more than $1&#;million worth of bitcoin to the Foundation for Economic Education.[2]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^"California Birth Index of Roger Keith Ver".
- ^ abcdeAnsuya Harjani (2 December ). "Meet 'Bitcoin Jesus,' a virtual currency millionaire". CNBC. Retrieved 25 December
- ^Popper, Nathaniel (25 July ). "Some Bitcoin Backers Are Defecting to Create a Rival Currency". The New York Times. ISSN&#; Retrieved 28 July
- ^ abc"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 Archived from the original on 13 February
- ^"Bitcoin Cash Advocate Roger Ver Considers Launching Own Exchange". Bloomberg. Retrieved 3 August
- ^ abcSparkes, Matthew (7 January ). "Millionaire 'Bitcoin Jesus' denied entry to the US". Telegraph (UK).
- ^ abcJason Clenfield; Pavel Alpeyev (16 June ). "'Bitcoin Jesus' Calls Rich to Tax-Free Tropical Paradise". Bloomberg. Retrieved 25 December
- ^ abMinsky, David (16 January ). "U.S. Won't Let "Bitcoin Jesus" Who Renounced His Citizenship Come To Miami For Conference". Miami New Times (blog).
- ^Farivar, Cyrus (7 January ). "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.
- ^"Quarterly Publication of Individuals, Who Have Chosen To Expatriate, as Required by Section G". Federal Register. 8 May Retrieved 23 July
- ^Twitter Post by Ver, 24 July
- ^triforcebjj (31 May ), Roger Ver vs David Garmo in BJJ World Championships, retrieved 2 October
- ^"Roger Ver, World's first Investor in Bitcoin On His Passion For BJJ & Brown Belt". Bjj Eastern Europe. 1 December Retrieved 2 October
- ^"Fortune The Ledger 40 under Roger Ver". 29 July
- ^Cyrus Farivar (1 August ). "Bitcoin investor who renounced US citizenship now can't get back in". ArsTechnica. Wired Media Group. Retrieved 28 December
- ^SmartVoter (3 February ). "Voter Information for Roger K Ver". League of Women Voters.
- ^Max Raskin (13 April ). "Meet the Bitcoin Millionaires". Bloomberg. Retrieved 28 December
- ^Adrianne Jeffries (13 December ). "Brooklyn-Based Bitcoin Startup BitInstant Raises Seed Round". Observer. Observer Media. Retrieved 28 December
- ^Kyle Russell (29 January ). "Meet The 'Bitcoin Millionaire' Arrested For Allegedly Helping Silk Road Launder $US1 Million". Business Insider Australia. Allure Media. Retrieved 28 December
- ^Lunden, Ingrid. "With PayPal-Like Ambitions For Bitcoin, BitPay Raises $2M Led By Founders Fund". TechCrunch. Retrieved 14 August
- ^Robert McMillan (19 December ). "How Bitcoin Became the Honey Badger of Money". Wired. Conde Nast. Retrieved 25 January
- ^ abVigna, Paul; Michael J. Casey (). The Age of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and Digital Money Are Challenging the Global Economic Order. St. Martin's Press. pp.&#;, ISBN&#;. Retrieved 3 January
- ^Farivar, Cyrus (7 April ). "Bitcoin Foundation is "effectively bankrupt," board member says". ArsTechnica. Condé Nast. Retrieved 5 September
- ^Cheng, Evelyn (11 December ). "'Bitcoin Jesus' is 'really, really concerned' about the future of the digital currency". CNBC. Retrieved 3 August
- ^Morris, David (8 January ). "In Cryptocurrency, It's Bitcoiners vs. Everyone Else". tallerembajador.com.mx. Retrieved 2 February
External links[edit]
"Episode Buy This Passport". Planet Money. 10 March
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