"Ulbricht Backs 'Bitcoin Jesus' Ver: 'No One Should Spend Life in Prison Over Taxes'"

Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, recently released from prison, has thrown his support behind jailed Bitcoin advocate Roger Ver, also known as "Bitcoin Jesus." In a post on X, Ulbricht wrote, "Roger Ver was there for me 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, made on February 20, rallied Ulbricht's supporters to join the "Free Bitcoin Jesus" movement.

Roger Ver faces life in prison over unpaid Bitcoin taxes. In 2014, Ver sought Japanese residency instead of American, and US authorities claim he didn't follow exit tax procedures properly. The IRS, America's tax department, requires anyone renouncing their citizenship to pay all outstanding taxes before exiting the American tax system. Ver's defense team argues that the IRS didn't follow proper procedures and that the case rests on a misinterpretation of exit tax law.

Betting markets like Polymarket predict a 10% likelihood of Ver's release within the first hundred days of Trump's presidency. Ver has spoken out about the complexities of reporting assets in emerging markets and the illiquidity of the markets he was involved in. His defense team claims that the exit tax laws are unreasonably vague and that Ver took all available steps to follow the rules at the time.

On January 22, Trump pardoned 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 throughout. The case against him was started in 2013 by federal agents and has since been shut down. The Free Roger campaign has many supporters, including those who supported the Free Ross campaign and even Elon Musk. However, some argue that Ver's case is different from Ulbricht's.

Ulbricht and Ver were early adopters of Bitcoin, finding practical ways to use the new technology when most people were still wondering if it would last. Both faced life in prison and battled against a draconian American tax department. While Ver invested in startups like Kraken and BitPay, Ulbricht created the Silk Road. Not surprisingly, Ver was involved in the Blocksize Wars, advocating for bigger blocks so that Bitcoin could be used easily by regular people to make transactions.