538: The Block Is Hot - With Roger Ver

At School Sucks, we strive to provide young people with the building blocks of intellectual, financial and lifestyle independence. Over the last year, we have overlooked a phenomenon that certainly relates to the last two: Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency explosion.My guest today is a man who has been one of the most prominent figures in Bitcoin's promotion, education, growth and recent controversies. Roger Ver was the first investor in many successful Bitcoin startups, and he has worked for over 5 years on the adoption of Bitcoin as an alternative to fiat money, both inside and outside the voluntaryist community. Roger has referred to this effort as "the separation of money and state." And as far as financial freedom is concerned, this separation would be a monumental achievement.Throughout 2017, Roger became a central figure in an intensifying conflict over how to scale Bitcoin to speed up transactions and bring in more users. We'll get into more detail in the show, but one important outcome was Roger's embrace and promotion of a new version of Bitcoin, called Bitcoin Cash, which he argues is more aligned with the original vision for Bitcoin as a accessible and decentralized currency.There are obviously two sides to this story and we will discuss that in the show. Other topics include-why I wanted to start this ongoing conversation with Roger-some history leading up to Bitcoin's hard fork in August-competing financial incentives in Bitcoin development, mining and adoption-the biggest challenges bitcoin cash faces to become the dominate crypto-is Roger worried at all about bitcoin core changing direction and implementing and block size increase?-if they do what will that mean for bitcoin cash? Please Support School SucksWe do cool things! Thanks to your support.School Sucks is one of the longest running liberty-minded podcasts on the web, and the only one completely devoted to the issue of education (versus public school and college). Your support keeps the show going and growing, which keeps us at the top of the options for education podcasts and leads to new people discovering our work. Please help us continue to spread this important message further!Thanks for visiting this page. Before you do anything, please bookmark and use this link for your Amazon shopping: Shop With UsOne-Time Donation Options:Paypal/Venmo;Donate DASHDonate ETHEREUMDonate LITECOINDonate BITCOINDonate BITCOIN CASHDonate ZCASHRecurring Options:Support Us On PATREONHelp incentivize our production! Pledge $1 per content item and access dozens of Patron only audios and videos.Join the A/V ClubIf you're looking for more School Sucks content, the A/V Club option grants you access to a bonus content section with 400+ hours of exclusive audio and video. If you are a regular consumer of our media, please consider making a monthly commitment by selecting the best option for you...A/V Club - Basic Access - $8.00/MonthA/V Club - "Advanced" Access - $12.00/MonthSigma Sigma Pi - "Privileged" Access - $16.00/Month Crypto Addresses:DASH; XcZfPP6GZGVo9VKViNBVJZja5JVxZDB229ETHEREUM; 0x3c5504CE3401C028832173506fa30BD4db4b7D35LITECOIN; LKNp24f5wwvZ2QzeDbvxXgBxyVwi1yXnu2BITCOIN; 1KhwY836cfSGCK5aaGFv8Q7PHMgghFJn1UBITCOIN CASH 1AmqLVxjw3Lp9KT5ckfvsqfN2Hn3B1hCWSZCASH; t1by1ZGJ63LoLSjXy27ooJtipf4wMr7qbu4