Roger Ver, the early Bitcoin investor, adopter, and a top advocate of Bitcoin Cash, revealed that Ethereum would be at the forefront of driving most new users to crypto. The ‘Bitcoin Jesus’ stated that despite Ethereum lacking Bitcoin’s market capitalization, he believed that the asset would be at the forefront of driving the global adoption of cryptocurrency.
Ethereum Over Bitcoin
Speaking during the latest episode of a popular crypto podcast, the investor reiterates that even as Ethereum scaling issues persist, and with the emergence of other Layer-1 platforms, the Ethereum ecosystem remains the real deal. Furthermore, Ver commended the rapid rise of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-based blockchain protocols and other Layer-2 scaling solutions like Polygon (MATIC) and how they can help take some of the load off the main chain.
Ver presented a comprehensive narrative of the “crypto clash” that unfolded during the initial stages of Bitcoin, where Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, had contrasting viewpoints with some of the Bitcoin core developers. He noted that conflicting perspectives surrounding the utilization of smart contracts and a departure from the conventional notion of blockchains solely serving as currency or value sources forced Buterin to embark on the creation of Ethereum.
He added that all Ethereum developments would have been on the Bitcoin blockchain if there hadn’t been a conflict of interest between the Ethereum founder and the Bitcoin core developers. According to Ver, the disagreement between the two parties led to the creation of Ethereum.
In addition, Ver addressed the ongoing Ledger controversy, expressing his disappointment with the Recover service. This service permits users to entrust their encrypted seed phrases to external custodians to mitigate the risk of loss.
Ver remarked that although it is acceptable for individuals to opt for custodial accounts and recover their keys if desired, cryptocurrency’s essence revolves around consistently maintaining complete control over one’s assets.
Lawsuit Against Bitcoin Jesus
It is worth noting that Ver isn’t new to controversy in the crypto space. At the start of the year, he was entangled in a lawsuit filed by a trading division of Genesis, a crypto lending company, over an alleged failure to settle approximately $20.8 million in unresolved crypto options.
In a Reddit post published in January, Ver contended that he possessed “ample funds” to fulfill the outstanding amount. However, he argued that since Genesis was no longer financially solvent, he was not legally obligated to honor his part of the agreement.
In 2022, Ver was also the center of attention following accusations of debt defaulting. Mark Lamb, the CEO of CoinFLEX, stated that Ver was indebted to the company to the tune of $47 million worth of USD Coin (USDC) and was legally bound by a written agreement.
Ver explicitly refuted these allegations a couple of weeks later, although he refrained from referencing CoinFLEX in his denial statement. Nevertheless, Ver has a long history with the crypto industry.
He was an early investor in Bitcoin and other crypto-related ventures. Due to his consistent Bitcoin advocacy, he was nicknamed “Bitcoin Jesus” by the crypto community.
