Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, recently released from jail, spoke out in favor of jailed Bitcoin supporter Roger Ver , also known as Bitcoin Jesus. “Roger Ver was there for me,” wrote Ulbricht on X, “when I was down and needed help. Now Roger needs our help. No one should spend the rest of their life in prison over taxes”. The post was made on February 20, and it rallied his own supporters to support the ‘free Bitcoin Jesus’ movement. As Ulbricht rightly points out, Roger Ver faces life in prison over unpaid Bitcoin taxes. It started in 2014 when Roger sought Japanese residency instead of American. The US authorities claim that Roger didn’t follow the exit tax procedures properly and are currently seeking extradition so that Roger can face 109 years behind bars. The IRS, America’s tax department, requires anyone renouncing their citizenship to pay all outstanding taxes before exiting the American tax system. Roger’s defense team, however, claims that the IRS didn’t follow proper procedures. Tax workers interrogated Roger’s attorney and staff while not executing a warrant. Supporters of Roger further argue that the IRS case rests on a misinterpretation of exit tax law. The betting markets, such as Polymarket, predict a 10% likelihood of Roger’s release within the first hundred days of Trump’s presidency. Roger has spoken out, claiming that reporting assets is complicated when investing in an emerging market. Furthermore, the markets Roger was involved in were illiquid and difficult to convert into cash. Roger’s defense team claims that the exit tax laws are unreasonably vague. They further point out that Roger took all the steps available at the time, considering the circumstances, and tried to follow the rules. On January 22, Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht for his involvement in the Silk Road, an anonymous marketplace that used Bitcoin for transactions. Ulbricht had been serving a life sentence since 2015 and maintained his innocence the entire time, spurring the ‘Free Ross’ movement. The case against him was started in 2013 by federal agents and has also been shut down. The Free Roger campaign has many supporters, including those who supported the Free Ross campaign for so many years. Even Elon Musk has voiced support for freeing Roger Ver. There are mixed reactions, with some claiming that Roger’s case is very different from Ulbricht’s. However, Ulbricht and Roger were early adopters of Bitcoin, finding practical ways to use the new technology when most people were still wondering if it would last. Therefore, many people in the cryptocurrency community see a strong parallel between the two Bitcoin uses, especially since they both faced life in prison and battled against a draconian American tax department. While Roger invested in startups like Kraken and BitPay, Ulbricht created the Silk Road. Not surprisingly, Roger Ver, an early Bitcoin pioneer, was involved in the Blocksize Wars, advocating for bigger blocks so that Bitcoin could be used easily by regular people to make transactions.
