Elucidating the life of a former Bitcoin enthusiast.
Is Bitcoin the future?
Bitcoin in the year 2009, came up with a lot of hopes for the community members, that it would be radicalizing the financial economy, by eliminating the need of an intermediary, to send money from one part the world to another. And Bitcoin did prove to be highly successful, but in the recent days, due to significant advancements in the technology better protocols have been implemented in newer cryptocurrencies. As a direct consequence of which, more efficient cryptocurrencies are being utilized instead of Bitcoin. Even many of the institutional investors along with financial advisors have shifted their perspective away from Bitcoin, due to its inherent scalability issue.
Introduction to Roger Ver
Roger Ver is one of the many institutional investors, about the cryptocurrency industry who have been contributing consistently for the development of notably, Bitcoin. It must be noted down that, Roger Ver shifted his perspective drastically from Bitcoin to Bitcoin Cash as the fork was initiated. The increase of block size from 1 MB to 8 MB was highly appreciated by him and became a staunch supporter of Bitcoin cash. Finally, he was very much frustrated with the delays in the Bitcoin network and had also started commenting negative remarks concerning Bitcoin. Ironically, he was one of the most active Bitcoin enthusiasts.
The early life of Roger Ver
Born on 27th January 1979, Roger Ver was living with his Christian family in San Jose, California. He was dominantly associated with investment and business. His business interests could easily be seen, in his small business of selling candies, in his school and was quite successful at his level. His small-scale business eventually led him to buy a Ford Mustang during his high school. The business-oriented Roger Ver, fought with his father, for his dad had placed an ad in a newspaper to sell Ford Mustang.
Allegations on Roger Ver
His business-oriented mind later led to the development of a company which provided parts of computers. Initiated in 1999, the company, Memory Dealers had supplied memory modules to the companies like Cisco and Juniper. He provided them with spare parts. Later in the year 2002, he was alleged to deal with explosives which were not under his jurisdiction. As a result of which he had to spend 10 months in the federal prison. He considers it to be a personal grudge of the Commission of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Fire Explosives towards him. After 10 months of his imprisonment, he was kept on a probation period for about 3 years.
His first Bitcoin exposure
Roger Ver first had come to know about Bitcoin in February 2011, while listening to a bitcoin podcast. Followed by which, he locked up himself in a room and assimilated knowledge about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. It was in the same year, in which he made a $25,000 investment in Bitcoin. Interestingly, the price jumped from $2 per BTC to almost $30, which instantly made him a Bitcoin millionaire. He had indirectly invested in Charlie Shrem’s, Bitinstant, as his Bitcoin investment. with the return on Investments, he further invested in various other cryptocurrencies and blockchain projects.
Development concerning Bitcoin.com
In April 2014, his obsession towards Bitcoin led him to buy the domain name bitcoin.com from blockchain.info. He made use of the website predominantly for his interest, where both Bitcoin and Bitcoin cash where made available to be bought or sold. To monetize the website, and earn a significant return on investment he also initiated an online Bitcoin Casino. The website even provided with the latest news in the cryptocurrency domain and as staunch Bitcoin Cash supporter, he made use of the website in promoting Bitcoin Cash and various other Bitcoin hard forks, for his interest. The former Bitcoin supporter was now being witnessed to give negative remarks towards Bitcoin for its scalability issues.
Secrecy of Bitcoin.com
It is also observed that Bitcoin.com has secret connections with many Chinese blockchain based companies, as many articles on Bitcoin.com pointed at the promotion of their product.
