Roger Ver, also known as Bitcoin Jesus due to his early work and support of the cryptocurrency, says he’s fed up with hackers. Seriously fed up. So fed up in fact, that he’s putting a bounty on their heads.

Ver has been victimized by hackers twice: first was when Bitcoinica was hacked in 2012, losing him thousands of Bitcoins he had stored in the exchange; then in May 2014 a hacker got hold of his Hotmail account and stole sensitive information. The hacker involved in the Hotmail attack is believed to be the same person who threatened to reveal the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. The hacker demanded 37.6 BTC (about $20,000), saying if Ver coughed up the crypto-dosh, he would leave him alone. If not, he threatened to “ruin his life”.

But this hacker may have bitten off a ‘bit’ more than he can chew. Ver is now a very angry man, and instead of giving into the hacker’s demands, he’s announced a bounty of 37.6 BTC to anyone who can identify the hacker. That apparently caused the hacker or hackers to back down, and no ransom was ever paid.

Because the bounty was so effective, Ver has now decided to launch a crowdfunding service that will help fund similar bounties to catch other hackers. Called the “Bitcoin Bounty Hunter”, the project allows people to anonymously help crowdsource bounties to catch criminals like the one who threatened Ver, and also those responsible for high profile hacks on exchanges like Mt.Gox and Bitcoinica.

Bounties are paid in Bitcoin, and go to whoever provides evidence leading to the arrest of the perpetrators. However, the reward will only be paid if the suspect is convicted, and informants will have to prove they helped to nab the perpetrator by submitting evidence to proofofexistence.com.

Ver’s idea is a positive one because Bitcoin has suffered greatly from the negative publicity that comes with such crimes. Whether or not anyone will actually manage to nab a hacker, well, that probably depends on how smart the bad guys are.

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