‘Wild ride’: Stefan Rust takes over from Roger Ver as Bitcoin.com CEO

Stefan Rust has replaced Roger Ver as CEO of Bitcoin.com.

He joined the venture six months ago as Global Head of Corporate & Business Development. Prior to that, he founded and led Exicon, a mobile marketing automation SaaS platform. Rust is also the Chairman Emeritus of the Mobile Ecosystem Forum. He has also worked with Siemens, Lucent and Sun Microsystems.

Ver, meanwhile, will take the position of Executive Chairman. “I’m hugely excited to take on the role of CEO working alongside Roger. Together we can now turbocharge the awesome team and great brand that is Bitcoin.com,” Rust says.

“We will play an integral part in making money work for everybody as society undergoes such an enormous and pivotal change. It’s going to be a wild ride, so don’t miss it.”

Ross Ulbricht

Earlier this year, Ver popped up on YouTube to read a letter from Ross Ulbricht, who is best known for creating and running the Silk Road website from 2011 until his arrest in 2013.

The latter is currently serving a double life sentence plus 40 years in the US without the possibility of parole. Ver makes a habit of sharing the letters sent to him by Ulbricht. In the aforementioned one, he thanked Ver for organising a benefit concert in Los Angeles. “Can you imagine if the President released me beforehand? Then I could crash the party and tell everyone prison stories and all my thoughts on criminal justice reform. There is a lot to discuss!”

“Prison doesn’t get easier, but I am keeping my chin up. With friends like you out there, I feel it is just a matter of time before this nightmare is behind me and I can start living again. Thank you for giving me hope,” Ulbricht added.

Bad guys

Also in the YouTube video, Ver gave his thoughts on the war against drugs. “If you’re a police officer watching this video, look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself, when you put someone in prison or arrest somebody for having a plant that makes them feel happy or buying and selling a white powder that makes people feel happy, are you the good guy for doing that?” he said.

“I would argue very strongly, no, you’re the bad guy for doing that. Just like those who were arresting people for drinking alcohol when alcohol was illegal in the USA. They were the bad people for doing such a thing.”

“Just because some people get together and write some words down on paper and call it a law, that doesn’t alter morality one bit. And if people have the right to drink alcohol, they have the right to smoke marijuana – they have the right to smoke crack,” he continued. “Because their lives and their bodies belong to them and their lives and their bodies don’t belong to the politicians or the police officers or any of these other people.”