Wink & a Bitcoin: Roger Ver Offers Reddit $100k to Appoint New Moderator to Bitcoin Forum
Early cryptocurrency investor and ardent Bitcoin Cash supporter Roger Ver is known for using his social media presence to stir the pot, and he lived up to that reputation this week.
Ver, who owns Bitcoin.com and has signed on to the “Bitcoin Cash is Bitcoin” movement, offered to pay Reddit a bribe if the social media platform would appoint a moderator “who supports free speech” to the Bitcoin subreddit, which has long been one of the most popular Bitcoin forums.
“Dear @reddit, I heard that as of recently you were not a profitable company. I’ll pay you $100,000 USD if you simply appoint a moderator to /r/Bitcoin who supports free speech,” Ver wrote in a Wednesday tweet that included a link to an oft-shared blog post accusing the subreddit of censorship.
Relations have grown tense between /r/Bitcoin and /r/BTC — the other major Bitcoin-related subreddit — over the years. The former has frequently been accused of censorship for its moderation of posts related to the years-long Bitcoin scaling debate, while the latter — of which Ver is a moderator — has become the de facto subreddit for Bitcoin Cash. Both, meanwhile, have been accused of tribalism.
Ver’s tweet attracted its own of replies — and copycats.
Some, like Bitcoin.org co-owner Cobra-Bitcoin, offered to pay for a moderator post on /r/BTC. Cobra-Bitcoin, for instance, offered the social media company $1 million to make him the “head moderator” of /r/BTC so that he could “make the content of that subreddit better match the name.”
Others poked fun at Ver for his tweet. One, for example, compared it to dogs complaining that they did not have more representation on a forum dedicated to cats.
In any case, of course, Reddit does not need the money, even if it has yet to reach profitability. Last year, the company raised $200 million in funding , placing its total valuation at $1.8 billion.
Featured image from Youtube.
