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| Age | 42 |
| Place of birth | San Jose, U.S. |
| Place of residence | Tokyo, Japan |
| Category | Investing |
| Alma mater | Stanford University, Deanza College |
| Known for | Early Bitcoin evangelism, angel investment, and supporting Bitcoin Cash |
Biography:
Roger Ver is an early Bitcoin adopter and investor, having funded many of the first wave of Bitcoin startups. He is now widely known in the crypto space as a proponent of Bitcoin Cash, a fork of the original Bitcoin codebase and currency. An outspoken libertarian and anarcho-capitalist, Ver served a federal prison sentence in the United States for selling ingredients for explosives through the postal service. After his sentence, Ver moved to Tokyo and renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2014. Until August 2019, Ver was the CEO of Bitcoin.com, a site featuring cryptocurrency news in addition to an exchange and wallet service; he now serves as executive chairman. Ver is also one of the five original founders of the Bitcoin Foundation.
Roger Ver's 2019:
In July, a Justice of the High Court of England and Wales dismissed a libel lawsuit against Ver by Australian computer scientist and self-proclaimed inventor of Bitcoin, Craig Wright. Wright has filed similar defamation claims in the U.K. with hopes of the regions strict libel laws would give him an edge, but the court threw out the case, citing that the U.K. is not an appropriate jurisdiction for the case. In August, Ver left his CEO position at Bitcoin.com, shifting to an executive chairman role instead.
In November, Ver conducted a Facebook giveaway of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) to spread adoption of the cryptocurrency. Each of his Facebook friends received $5 of BCH, which he claimed could “easily become worth $5,000 some day,” a near-100,000% increase. In November, Ver announced the launch of a $200 million BCH investment fund intended to fund development of payment solutions and non-custodial financial services for the currency.
What Cointelegraph expects for 2020:
With Ver stepping away from managing daily operations of Bitcoin.com, we expect him to continue evangelizing and funding the BCH ecosystem throughout the new year.