Roger Ver Revealed As Bitcoin.com Owner, In Bitter Dispute With OKCoin
Bitcoin angel investor and enthusiast Roger Ver has been unveiled as the owner of the famous digital currency domain Bitcoin.com. Vers involvement came to light following a dispute with Chinese bitcoin exchange OKCoin, who was managing the website.
Until now the owner of Bitcoin.com was never known, though Roger Ver has been considered a likely candidate for some time. The domain’s prior operator was the Bitcoin wallet service Blockchain.info, whose control was relinquished shortly after the wallet service was hacked. It was announced shortly after that OKCoin would be managing the website. The website’s development has since been slow, and received some criticism from an impatient bitcoin community. Little has come of the website which is suppose to act as the online portal for the emerging digital currency industry.
This revelation of Ver’s ownership was quickly overshadowed by a bitter argument between Ver and OKCoin, when the Chinese exchange made a public announcement. According to Ver, OKCoin owes the investor thousands of dollars in overdue payments for controlling the website.
OKCoin’s public announcement appeared to be a three pronged defence against the Bitcoin evangelist, including what appears to be a statement explaining why they stopped paying Ver.
“It was only with the announcement of the FinCen fines against Ripple Labs Inc. for not filing a suspicious activity report concerning Mr. Ver, that OKCoin made the judgement to refrain from continuing a business relationship with Mr. Ver.”
— – OKCoin
According to OKCoin, the FinCEN fine levied against Ripple labs constituted “FinCen actions against Mr. Ver.” A FinCEN statement regarding the Ripple Labs fine revealed that Ver has a prior Felony conviction, and in light of this information OKCoin has "taken the stance that it can no longer make contractual payments to Mr. Ver."
According to emails published by Ver, the Chinese bitcoin exchange owes him over $20,000 USD for operating the website, plus an undecided amount for “damages.” Aside from the Felony conviction defense, OKCoin claims they are not obliged to pay anything as “the original contract entered into by a former OKCoin employee and Mr. Ver was itself not an official contract of the company.”
The OKCoin employee who signed the contract, revealed to be Changpeng Zhao, has since left the company. According to the exchange operator the contract fails to “detail the legal entity with which Mr. Ver entered into a contractual agreement with.”
According to Daniel Kelman, Vers lawyer in this dispute, the contract is valid and legally binding. OKCoin has an international business entity registered in Singapore, OKCoin SG. Kelman said in email correspondence with OKCoin’s CEO Star Xu, that the Chinese exchange was “unilaterally breaching our agreement.”
In what could be considered an attempt to hedge their bets OKCoin states that the contracts held by both parties, in which OKCoin is not a legally identified party, show discrepancies. Ver countered by ordering an analysis of the documents, and the cryptographic key the bitcoin angel investor claimed to have sign it with. The analysis was conducted by IT security consultant and WIZ Operations network engineer, J. Maurice.
After publishing his findings Maurice concluded that the alternative documents presented by OKCoin were forgeries. The Chinese exchange continues to deny these claims, and has announced a $20,000 bounty for anyone who can disprove Ver’s claim.
"I didn’t just claim that OKcoin’s contract with my signature on it is a forgery. I proved it with cryptographic certainty […] OKcoin’s $20,000 bounty might as well be a $20,000 bounty to prove that 2+2 doesn’t equal four."
— – Roger Ver
Ver is in the process of suing OKCoin’s Singaporean entity for the unpaid responsibilities and breach of contract.
Updated May 24, 3:30 GMT
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