Roger Ver Says Ethereum not Bitcoin will Attract New Users

During a recent episode of the Show Me The Crypto podcast on May 31, Roger Ver, widely known as "Bitcoin Jesus" due to his early advocacy for Bitcoin, expressed his perspective on the current state of the cryptocurrency landscape. 

Ver acknowledged that while Ethereum has faced challenges with scaling and the emergence of competing layer-one solutions, he firmly believes that the Ethereum ecosystem remains the epicenter of innovation and activity within the industry. 

Despite the existence of alternative blockchain platforms, often referred to as "clones," Ver contends that Ethereum continues to be the primary hub for groundbreaking developments and transformative applications in the world of crypto.

“Even though Ethereum doesn’t have the biggest market cap compared to Bitcoin, I think Ethereum is the front-runner in terms of driving worldwide adoption,” Ver said.

Ver expressed admiration for the notable emergence of Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible (EVM) blockchains and layer-2 scaling solutions like Polygon. These innovative developments have the potential to alleviate the burden on the Ethereum main chain by distributing some of the workloads to these alternative platforms.

Ver recounts the historical "civil war" that unfolded during the early stages of Bitcoin, which pitted Ethereum's co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, against the Bitcoin core developers.

Ver emphasized that the disagreements primarily revolved around the utilization of smart contracts and the departure from the notion of blockchains solely serving as a medium of exchange or a means to store value. According to Ver's observations, it was precisely these differences in perspective that fueled Vitalik Buterin's determination to create Ethereum.

“All of that would have been built on top of Bitcoin if not for the scaling civil war that happened. These Bitcoin core developers hate Vitalik, and they basically drove him from the project to go and create Ethereum, and more power to him for that,” he said.

Ver further shared his thoughts on the contentious Ledger Recover service, expressing his disappointment with its approach. The service enables users to entrust their encrypted seed phrase to external custodians as a precautionary measure against potential loss. 

Ver acknowledged that while it may be acceptable for individuals to opt for custodial accounts and pursue key recovery if they desire, he emphasized that the core ethos of cryptocurrency revolves around maintaining absolute control over one's assets at all times. 

From Ver's perspective, the fundamental principle of crypto entails having full autonomy and ownership over one's digital wealth, aligning with the overarching theme of decentralized control that underpins the cryptocurrency movement.

During the month of January, Ver found himself entangled in a legal dispute when he was sued by a trading unit of Genesis, a crypto lending firm, for allegedly defaulting on approximately $20.8 million worth of unresolved crypto options. 

In response to the lawsuit, Ver took to Reddit and stated that he possessed "sufficient funds" to fulfill the outstanding payment. However, he contended that due to Genesis' insolvency, he was not legally obligated to honor his part of the agreement. 

Ver's argument rested on the notion that since the counterparty was no longer financially sound, he was released from his contractual obligations.

In a notable incident last year, Ver found himself at the center of attention when accusations arose regarding a debt default. Mark Lamb, the CEO of CoinFLEX, alleged that Ver had an outstanding obligation of $47 million in USD Coin, and there was a written contract supporting this claim. 

However, on June 28, Ver publicly refuted these allegations without explicitly referencing CoinFLEX or any specific company involved in the dispute.