Early Bitcoin Investor [Roger Ver] Charged with Tax Fraud (www.justice.gov)
from gerikson@awful.systems to buttcoin@awful.systems on 01 May 2024 13:13
https://awful.systems/post/1447912

Fun times!

HN discussion, including poo-poohing his conviction (with 10 month prison sentence) for improperly storing and selling explosives as “just selling firecrackers”:

news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40219555

Also Mike Hearn shows up and is topical regarding Nix:

Note that the same tactics that were used to wreck Bitcoin are now being deployed against Nix, as the open source community has struggled to learn the right lessons from Bitcoin.

#buttcoin

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dgerard@awful.systems on 01 May 2024 13:30 next collapse

now there’s a name etc

dgerard@awful.systems on 01 May 2024 13:33 next collapse

I’m Roger Ver, long time Bitcoin advocate and investor. Today I’m at the Roger Ver world headquarters in custody. I had a nice chat with the Roger Ver CEO, Roger Ver, about their current situation. He showed me multiple tax bills, as well as letters from tax authorities and lawyers. I’m sure that all the current tax problems with Roger Ver are being caused by the traditional taxation system, not because of a lack of taxes paid by Roger Ver. The traditional taxation partners that Roger Ver needs to work with are not able to keep up with the demands of the growing Roger Ver economy. The people that make up the Roger Ver team are hard at work establishing additional taxation partners, that eventually will make dealing with Roger Ver easier for all their tax agencies around the world. For now, I hope that everyone will continue working on Roger Ver projects that will help make Roger Ver’s world a better place.

self@awful.systems on 01 May 2024 16:45 next collapse

god damn, the orange site supposedly being anti-crypto was never true (they were very much for it before it got a reputation for being a grift, and everything now just feels like damage control) but fuck is that thread surprisingly dense with cryptobros.

Note that the same tactics that were used to wreck Bitcoin are now being deployed against Nix

I’m sure Mike has something monstrous in mind with this comparison, but it’s apt in ways he almost certainly didn’t intend. let’s compare the problems in Nix with a traditional crypto scam!

  • the veneer of decentralization and collective decision making masks a highly centralized, informal leadership structure that overrules any community consensus that impedes their ability to get a payout
  • extreme forking hostility
  • “all complaints should go to the discord of the company we pretend isn’t in control!”
  • all critical discussions get sidetracked by right-wing trolls with financial incentives who can’t be banned because of project principles that defend them (and their money) but are easily weaponized against marginalized folks.
gerikson@awful.systems on 01 May 2024 19:16 collapse

To be honest I’ve long since forgotten where Mike Hearn stands within the crazy world of intra-BTC rivalries (Ver was behind “Bitcoin Cash” which is an offshoot) but I knew from the get-go that the facts, such as they are, in the Nix debate don’t matter. It’s become an alt-right cause celebre and yet another anecdote to weave into their yarn of dastardly SJW meddling in the holy world of FOSS. So trying to derive any sense of the analogy is useless. It’s all nasty vibes.

self@awful.systems on 01 May 2024 20:48 collapse

you’re right, and I hate that you’re right. it really was that easy for the biggest alt-right pissbabies in FOSS to make this a damn thing, and nobody who could’ve stopped them did

sailor_sega_saturn@awful.systems on 02 May 2024 01:48 collapse

Every time Roger Ver is quoted in this document is sheer comedy, but this is perhaps my favorite:

[bitcoin wallets] were not registered to any name or associated with a tax id, and that no one, including the IRS, can freeze ones [sic] bitcoin accounts or seize ones [sic] bitcoins. […]

This is in an email to his tax lawyer.

dgerard@awful.systems on 03 May 2024 07:23 collapse

“Bitcoins cannot be confiscated by the govermment!”
(point to the millions of bitcoins confiscated by governments)
“Bitcoins are censorship resistant”