April 25, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Cryptocurrency enthusiasts Roger Ver, CEO of Bitcoin.com, is out to promote Bitcoin Cash, an offshoot of the world’s largest cryptocurrency, in Korea. 

Ver, referred to as “Bitcoin Jesus,” is known as the world’s first investor in Bitcoin startups. Recently, he has shifted his focus to Bitcoin Cash, the new cryptocurrency split off last August, due to its low fees and faster transaction capacity. Emphasizing that Bitcoin Cash is the “real Bitcoin,” he believes Korea is a great place for its wider adoption as a new payment method. 

Roger Ver, CEO of Bitcoin.com, speaks during an interview in Seoul.

“Bitcoin Cash is the best to bring more economic freedom around the world,” Ver said in an interview on the sidelines of the Blockfesta conference on Aug. 23. “Korean people are not shy to try new things. Everyone I met here was willing to install Bitcoin Cash wallet on their cellphones and try it.”

During this visit, he met with Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon to talk about partnerships, as Seoul is looking to roll out its own cryptocurrency, dubbed “S-Coin.” Earlier this month, he met Jeju Island Gov. Won Hee-ryong for a potential tie-up with the province that seeks to become Korea’s ICO and cryptocurrency hub. He is planning to come back to Jeju in September. 

"I am seeking partnerships to help the spread of usage of cryptocurrencies in Korea,” said Ver. “I want to cooperate with the cities to make Bitcoin Cash as usable as fiat money in Korea and the world.”

He believes cryptocurrencies can replace fiat money in the future. “That is our goal,” he said. “It’s not fully ready yet, but we are building all the infrastructure to make them usable in the future. The entire point of digital currencies is to be as usable as legal tender.”

When different cities and districts plan to create their own cryptocurrencies covering their jurisdiction, Ver thinks it’s best to have one coin for all. “It will be useful if the entire world is using the same type of money. In the future, we will see one particular cryptocurrency getting the major share,” he said. 

He thinks Bitcoin Cash, despite its short history, has the potential of becoming the future of payments, tackling Bitcoin’s limitations. 

“The original defining Bitcoin white paper said it is the peer to peer e-cash system, but the people that got control of Bitcoin are hostile toward the idea of using it as cash,” he said. “They want the transactions (using Bitcoins) to be slow, expensive and unreliable, the exact opposite of cash.”

“Bitcoin Cash is the same version of Bitcoin that was first described in the white paper, and which made it popular in the first place,” he said.
 
Ver explained Bitcoin Cash, with a block size limit of eight megabytes -- eight times more than Bitcoin’s 1MB -- allows more transactions per day with reduced fees of around 1.4 won (US$0.001), much cheaper than Bitcoin with more than 100 won. 

Then what’s the role of Bitcoin, one may ask. According to Ver, Bitcoin has no value as a payment tool. 

“That’s why I sold most of my Bitcoins to buy more Bitcoin Cash,” he said. Ver is now considering an ICO with Bitcoin.com, the cryptocurrency information outlet that promotes Bitcoin Cash. 

“We are seeking to airdrop some Bitcoin.com-related tokens to every single Bitcoin Cash holders around the world,” he said. “We are figuring out the exact utility of the token that could be used for return-for-equity stake in Bitcoin.com.”

By Ahn Sung-mi (sahn@heraldcorp.com)