Ever heard of Bitcoin Activism? Well, if you haven’t then you are in here for a luck. Bitcoin activism is simple yet complex to understand, let us look at what the word activism actually means.
According to the Cambridge dictionary website “the use of direct and public methods to try to bring about esp. social and political changes that you and others want”
Sounds familiar, right? Well, those who are aware of the origin of bitcoin and what actually bitcoin is should have a fair idea about the next few statements that I will make.
Apart from the term “Bitcoin Activism”, you should try and first clear your mind that Bitcoin is the sheer result of activism itself and is itself a form of activism against the government controlled fiat currency and the resulting consequences coming from the use of government-controlled currencies.
Now, let us try and understand the term “Bitcoin activism” broadly “Crypto activism”, well there are two definitions of these terms, Bitcoin activism or crypto activism stands for the activist approach to make the currencies mainstream and eventually replace the modern world fiat currencies, but these terms lately found a totally new identity when the same term is being coined by different media outlets to define the use of cryptocurrencies to back other forms of activism like LGBT activism or any kind of social activism.
Basically, the use of cryptocurrencies instead of traditional fiat currency to fuel activist movements along with different fields and not only cryptocurrency. It is kind of a paradox a form of activism which is cryptocurrency is being used to fuel activism for other global issues and to protest against the government. Is this the ultimate period to Government supremacy and the beginning of ultimate democracy? Only time can tell.
Now, you may ask why the heck are we even discussing Activism and such sensitive topics? Well, today we will be discussing one noteworthy personality who identifies himself as a bitcoin activist and advocates the advantages of bitcoin and How blockchain technology could change the whole scenario and that is not all. He is also one of the early adopters of bitcoin, Erik Voorhees. Keep on reading to find about his early life, some uncanny details, and interestingly the net worth that he is holding right now.
Introduction
Erik Voorhees was born in March 1985 in the state of Colorado, United States, and then shifted to different geographical locations like Dubai and New York City. Erik Voorhees is famously known for founding Shapeshift.io, A cryptocurrency exchange that claims to be faster and secure than other exchanges and is unique in the matter that it does not require any kind of ID to register and start trading cryptos.
He is also known to be a part of the first internet bitcoin acquisition that happened in history till the inception of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, we will discuss this in more detail in the latter part of this article so, keep on reading to find out more about it.
Education
There is not much information available on the internet about the background of his education, but we certainly have some names and degrees.
Erik did his schooling at the Vail mountain school situated in Colorado through which we can say that he moved from colorado after completing his primary education.
After which he earned a bachelor’s degree in arts, specializing in the field of Business leadership and political economics. The two fields which he used throughout his career and is still using them.
He completed his education in 2007 and started his epic journey to be one of the most influential people in the field of cryptocurrency.
Career
Unlike the Winklevoss Twins, not everybody is served a million dollars on a silver plate so, people do not just wake up one day and decide to be famous, they have to work hard a lot before earning a fortune and the same is true for Erik Voorhees too. He had to switch different roles in different companies, working his ass off before starting his own cryptocurrency exchange.
Erik started his career in the year 2008 as a communications manager in a company named “Better Homes” which is one of the prominent names in the field of real estate and with branches both into residential and commercial leasing.
In 2010, Erik moved on to Podium Group working as the Communications lead along with handling the Project manager role, The Podium group worked in the field of branding, marketing, and web design for different clients across the world.
Soon, in the year of 2012, Erik joined Bitinstant as the head of marketing and it became his first exposure towards the world of cryptocurrency, primarily Bitcoin. Bitinstant was the fastest way for that time to turn your bitcoin holdings into cash.
And soon after his first exposure and understanding of bitcoin and cryptocurrency and the potential behind it in the year 2013, He co-founded Coinapult, a company that specialised in different bitcoin services and providing liquidity and secure wallet services to different clients.
In the midst of all this in the year 2012, Erik also founded SatoshiDICE, a bitcoin gambling website. We will be covering this part of his life in another section.
After all this, Erik founded the Shapeshift.io exchange which claims to be the fastest and secure than other exchanges and it also does not need any kind of ID to register and transact in crypto. It defines itself as “the instant exchange for digital assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Faster and safer than any other exchange”
Fine
In the year of 2012, Erik founded the online bitcoin gambling website SatoshiDICE which is a one-of-a-kind project in which people can directly bet on a virtual dice earning and lose bitcoins in the process. The moment you select a bet amount a QR code for a bitcoin wallet appears next to it and the player needs to transfer the number of bitcoins to start the bet. This became a largely controversial phase of Erik’s life and resulted in some huge fines from the SEC, the security and Exchange Commission of the United States.
Soon after the fines, Erik announced that SatoshiDICE is sold to an anonymous investor in exchange for a certain amount of bitcoins and the names are not to be revealed. This deal became the first of its kind in history where a company is acquired and the payment is being made through bitcoins.
Eric was also accused of laundering large sums of money using his own exchange Shapeshift.io, but he denies the accusations and dismissed them as baseless.
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Erik Voorhees Net worth
Voorhees is estimated to be holding a respectable net worth of 11 million US dollars. Please note that these figures are subject to change according to the cryptocurrency market and also these are not figures from official sources and are just assumptions.
You need to follow him on Twitter if you want to be a part of his Activism approaches in the field of cryptocurrency and bitcoin in general.
