Bitcoin Cash [BCH]: Roger Ver pushes for the release of Silk Road’s Ross Ulbricht

Ross Ulbricht, the man behind Silk Road is the protagonist of a debate that has divided the cryptocurrency community yet again.

Bitcoin Cash [BCH]’s Roger Ver, also the CEO of Bitcoin.com and popularly referred to as Bitcoin Jesus has been a long supporter of “free-market” ideals (Something Silk Road claimed to have run on) and the use of cryptocurrencies for the same. He recently reaffirmed his support for Ulbricht, mailing him a letter advocating the same.

Tweeting on 17 February, Ver said that he had mailed a letter to the United States’ Penitentiary in Tuscon, Arizona where Ulbricht is currently serving a double life sentence, without parole. The Bitcoin.com CEO did not specify the contents of the letter, but voiced his support for Ulbricht and added a link to the website that advocates for his release: freeross.org.

His tweet in full read,

“I sent a letter to Ross Ulbricht, and you should too. freeross.org  #FreeRoss #Silkroad”

The Ross Ulbricht issue is one of the most divisive issues within the cryptocurrency community, with some advocating free market principles and some citing the illegality of the articles sold on the ‘marketplace.’

Craig S Wright, the Chief Scientist at nChain and spearhead of the Bitcoin SV [BSV] project firmly placed himself opposed to Ver’s point, in both the BCH hardfork debate back in November 2018 as well as on the Ulbricht issue.

In an 8 February blog posted by Wright via Medium, he voiced his opposition for what he described as ‘criminal markets.’ He likened Ross Ulbricht and Silk Road to WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, calling the duo, ‘predators.’ Wright further added that the case of Silk Road,was something Bitcoin should make, ‘more difficult,’ and not one it should facilitate.

His blog, which was titled, ‘Careful what you wish for…’ read,

“I do not like Wikileaks, and I have never been a fan of Assange’s methods. More importantly, I am strongly opposed to criminal markets and bucket shops. Ross Ulbricht and others like him are criminals. They are not freedom fighters, they are not libertarians. They simply are predators, and they are all that Bitcoin was designed to make far more difficult.”

The topic of Ulbricht was also discussed by Roger Ver and Gabriel Cardona in Bitcoin.com’s latest episode on YouTube. The BCH proponents were discussing the recently concluded Anarchapulco 2019 Festival, which featured Lyn Ulbricht, Ross Ulbricht’s mother.

In the video, Ver described Ross Ulbricht as,

“Basically, Ross Ulbricht is the person that made Bitcoin start to become popular to being with. He made a useful platform that people started to use. Silk Road was useful, so, people started to use it and that’s what kicked-off this whole ecosystem.”

Ver and Cardona also stated that the Bitcoins that were seized and crowd-sold from Silk Road were primarily purchased by Tim Draper, the American venture capitalist. In light of the same, Ver appealed to Draper and the larger community to push for Ulbricht’s release,

“Tim Draper, if you happen to see this, you profited greatly from the Silk Road coins that you bought. Help out Ross, right, this guy does not deserve to die in prison.”

Users on Twitter were however split on this topic. @XrpBro commented,

“Didn’t he order murders? He should be free? Why?”

Zone Zero Apps further added,

“Why? He is a criminal. If not caught, he would still be selling drugs and weapons….”

However, @Russell voiced his support for Ulbricht, stating,

“They’re never going to let Ross free. Instead of spending so much time and money on that, we should be taking care of his family and others who are in desperate situations that can be helped. @rogerkver @Free_Ross #Silkroad”