Hi, I am Ian Freeman, host of the syndicated libertarian talk radio show, "Free Talk Live" (heard on over 185 AM/FM stations nationwide). If you were aware of our show, you may be aware that we were the ones who turned Roger Ver onto bitcoin back in 2011 - he was a regular listener and a sponsor of ours for his company at the time, Memory Dealers.
(Free Talk Live's main hosts, Ian Freeman, Mark Edge, Darryl W Perry)
In the last several weeks, I've had a few longtime supporters of Free Talk Live pull their monthly contribution to our AMP program. (Since we release our archives, webcam, and all our web features for free, we ask our listeners who appreciate our work to sign up for AMP for $5 a month and give out some cool perks.)
Normally, when someone cancels their AMP, I reach out to see if everything's okay. Usually it's someone who lost a job or is preparing for their move to New Hampshire as part of the NH Freedom Migration.
However, recently we've seen three people leave while accusing Free Talk Live of "supporting" Bitcoin Cash and Roger Ver. Further, they claimed Roger is committing fraud.
(Roger Ver)
Fraud is a serious allegation and we took quite a bit of time to look into this. However, when pressed for details and evidence on the alleged fraud, the respondents were unable to provide any. Here's what one said: "I'll admit that the fraud narrative is a bit overwrought, although not inaccurate. Neither I, or anyone who I know personally has been defrauded by Roger directly." (You can hear more from this series of emails in the show archive from Monday night where they were discussed in detail.)
They did however reference some twitter allegations by others claiming that Ver was defrauding people on his website, Bitcoin.com (which is a sponsor of our show).
Some of the allegations against Roger and/or Bitcoin.com have to do with the site's previous lack of clarity around its references to "Bitcoin (BCH)", which appeared on its Bitcoin.com Academy site and elsewhere. There were recent articles all over the crypto-news world about an alleged lawsuit that would target Roger & Bitcoin.com over this. The proponents of that suit appear to have already abandoned it, after failing to receive any significant financial support from the BTC True Believers who made a lot of noise about it.
One boycotter said that it was the threat of a lawsuit that made Bitcoin.com change their language on the site to "Bitcoin Cash (BCH)" or "Bitcoin Cash" rather than "Bitcoin (BCH)".
(Bitcoin Cash Logo)
Actually, I had contacted Roger earlier that week before any news about this supposed lawsuit, and suggested they make those changes to their Bitcoin Academy site, as I was uncomfortable promoting Bitcoin.com as a resource for newbies when it was not being clear which currency it was talking about. He considered my suggestion with his team, and implemented it.
While Roger is a longtime sponsor of Free Talk Live, he has never told us what to say or what opinions to have regarding BTC, BCH, or cryptocurrency or anything. If he did, I'd tell him to take his money elsewhere.
The other allegations of "fraud" are regarding Roger's opinion about what defines Bitcoin. (Which is where the 'Bitcoin BCH' references on his site also obviously stemmed from.)
Roger believes Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is Bitcoin and that BTC is not Bitcoin. I disagree. I think they are both Bitcoin. And so is Bitcoin Gold and the rest of the forks. They all have the Bitcoin blockchain as their basis and grew from there. Arguably, the original Bitcoin program no longer exists, at least as Satoshi created it. That's why it makes sense, with all the various Bitcoins out there, to refer to BTC as "Bitcoin Core". It's not some random name - that's the name the BTC devs chose for their software! Some people really hate it when BTC is called "Bitcoin Core", but again, all we're talking about here is opinions.
(Actual graphic from Bitcoin.org - the official BTC website)
There's no fraud here - just disagreement about definitions.
What there is instead of fraud is some seriously petty behavior in this ongoing, pointless, stupid war between BTC and BCH proponents. The pettiness exists on both sides, but so far, as someone who doesn't want to take a side (I accept BOTH BTC and BCH - and other cryptos), the BTC people are the most petty. I've never had a BCH or DASH or Monero fanatic pull their support for my show because we accept one or the other currencies. We also accept fiat, and no one has protested that. But the BTC people are pulling their AMPs because we won't join their war and reject Roger and BCH.
Roger's never told us what to say, but the BTC people are trying to wield their economic weight to try to get us to take their angry, jealous side. It's sad.
Further, more than one of the boycotters has even alleged that unless everyone supports BTC and only BTC, that liberty will be in jeopardy. This is on its face ridiculous. Most libertarians believe in competition, but it appears these BTC supporters really hate the competition from BCH. They're mad that Roger owns Bitcoin.com, arguably the best URL related to bitcoin. They're mad that Roger, who was one of BTC's original and biggest proponents and investors, has jumped ship and is promoting Bitcoin Cash.
Now we're being targeted for punishment because we won't join the BTC True Believers and shun BCH. It doesn't matter to them that we still accept BTC on our crypto donations page at the top of the list. It doesn't matter to them that BTC is the only crypto at this time that you can use to AMP the show, or that the bulk of the show's holdings are in BTC.
Because we haven't picked a side, they feel we've sided against them! Hey wait... that sounds familiar:
"Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."
-George W Bush
It's ridiculous and petty.
I asked one of the boycotters, "would you go into a local business that was accepting BTC and BCH at the register and tell the owner that he's putting the future of freedom in jeopardy by accepting a form of payment his customers requested to use? If so, you'd be a jerk. That business owner is just trying to do right by his customers. If people want to pay with a different crypto - that's evidence of BTC's FAILURE to be the best currency. Compete by being the best, not by attacking the newer competition - your favorite crypto is the king of the hill."
He never answered.
For the record, I don't think Bitcoin Cash is the best crypto. I focus on real-life cryptocurrency acceptance, and right now in New Hampshire and for the last six months, DASH has been the clear winner in that area. But if someone wants to pay me in Bitcoin Cash, that's fine. That doesn't put liberty in jeopardy. BCH is just another bitcoin-based crypto. This one happens to have been the first to fork, and it's worth more than all of the other Bitcoin forks, so it's noteworthy. If that bothers you, well, you just have a tough time with competition in an arena where the government can't help you protect your market position (the open-source cryptocurrency world).
If you'd like to hear a full discussion of the allegations against Roger Ver and Bitcoin.com, we literally spent the entire show last night on it.
If you'd like to support what we do, please listen, share our shows you like, and most importantly, AMP us at http://amp.freetalklive.com - It'd be especially cool if more AMPers came on to replace the few that have left in boycott. Thanks for reading and sharing!