Roger Ver: Prison Made a Bitcoin Believer

In a Cointelegraph exclusive interview, Roger Ver bears it all ‒ how his prison experience made him see Bitcoin’s potential, why Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is better than Bitcoin (BTC), and why Bitcoin Cash will appreciate 1,000 times.

Prison

Most of the crypto community knows that, in his youth, Roger Ver had run-ins with the law; in fact, he was sentenced to ten months for selling explosives on eBay.

However, not many know that this experience not only provided Ver with ample time for reading, but also allowed him to observe how in a closely controlled environment, “commodities” like tobacco, stamps, and noodles become mediums of exchange:

“So when I saw the prison economy and how people were buying and selling things and how things just naturally became used as money in prison, it validated what I had read about theoretically in the economics books as to what the origin of money was.”

BCH will go up in value 1,000 times

Ver is unabashedly optimistic about the prospects of BCH: “Bitcoin Cash could potentially go up 500 or a 1000 times from where it is today. I don’t think BTC is ever going to go up.” Ver believes that Bitcoin “committed economic suicide” when it refused to increase its block size. He also claims, pointing to Bitcoin:

“There’s nothing that can ever be used as a store of value that doesn’t have a secondary use case. It just plain doesn’t exist in the entire world. I don’t think anybody can think of an asset that’s only use case as a store value. It doesn’t exist.”

If you want to know why Roger Ver was called “The Dangerous One” in prison, watch the full interview.

“The Dangerous One”

In Jail, Ver’s nickname was “El Peligroso” which translates as “The Dangerous One”… However, this wasn’t a testament to how badass Ver was, but more of an irony – “I just stayed in my bed all day every day reading books, and I hardly left my bunk bed at all.”

[00:01:09-00:01:15] When Bitcoin came along, I thought, oh, I better sell my Lamborghini to buy more Bitcoin. And that’s exactly what I did. I went the reverse direction.

[00:03:19-00:03:26] So before I went to prison, I’d spent a lot of time studying economics books since particularly the origin of money and how something comes to be used as money.

[00:03:39-00:03:53] In prison, everybody is using tobacco as money because you can smoke it. They’re using top ramen soups as money because you can eat it, using postage stamps as money, because you can mail things with it. All of these things have these additional use cases outside of just being a store of value.

[00:03:53-00:04:05] So when I saw the prison economy and how people were buying and selling things and how things just naturally became used as money in prison, it validated what I had read about theoretically in the economics books as to what the origin of money was.

[00:04:57-00:05:18] Yeah, a lot of people don’t realize it, thankfully, because they’ve never been to prison. But in prison, there is just this massive internal prison economy where people are doing anything and everything to earn money and serve their fellow men. So everything from cooking for each other, doing each other’s laundry, shining shoes, you know, even prostitution services like anything and everything is going on.

[00:06:47-00:07:15] Yeah. So for those that don’t speak Spanish, my nickname in prison was El Peligroso, which means “The Dangerous One”. But it was just more of a joke than anything, because all I did everyday in prison is I once I figured out how things work, I was able to pay somebody else to do my job within the prison. And I just stayed in my bed all day everyday reading books, and I hardly left my bunk bed at all. I just stayed in bed reading books all day, every day. So it was just a joke because at that point I probably weighed maybe 120 pounds or something like that.

[00:09:48-00:09:54] Bitcoin Cash right now, today is the second most used cryptocurrency in the entire world behind only the BTC version of Bitcoin.

[00:10:04-00:10:11] Bitcoin Cash could potentially go up 500 or a 1000 times from where it is today. I don’t think BTC is ever going to go up.

Fusion is amazing. If people haven’t looked at the cash fusion yet, it’s fantastic. It’s going to make bitcoin cash just as private in the same ballpark of privacy level as something like a Monaro or Z cash.

Bitcoin cash has more usefulness in commerce than bitcoin, and I think the day will come when the price will reflect that because bitcoin cash price will be higher than the BTC version of bitcoin price.

I don’t think that that’s a a wild thing to say. I think that that’s that’s the future. Because when bitcoin limited its block space, it limited its usefulness, its commerce, its limited censorship resistance, it limited its ability to be adopted by people around the world. It basically committed economic suicide or first mover advantage suicide and for me is one of the biggest holders of bitcoin in the entire world and the owner of bitcoin dot com.

There’s nothing that can ever be used as a store of value that doesn’t have a secondary use case. It just plain doesn’t exist in the entire world. I don’t think anybody can think of an asset that’s only use case as a store value. It doesn’t exist.