John Villar (1982 – 2021) was a software engineer, who stood out as a speaker, entrepreneur and contributor to open source projects, he was also one of the first connoisseurs and users of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in his country, Venezuela.

Villar, or \"Chiguireitor\", as he was known on the Internet, was one of the first people to venture into Bitcoin mining in Venezuela, although he later left this activity due to the risks that were run in the country when mining was not.legally recognized.

John was also involved in countless cryptocurrency platforms as well as becoming an independent game developer and project maintainer.


Venezuelan John Villar was one of the main developers of the Counterparty protocol.Source: pbs.twimg / static.bitrated.
Although he did not like the term, John was one of the first people to be actively involved in the creation and development of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in history.

In fact, he was the developer of Counterparty, a P2P network created in 2014 and that works on Bitcoin, allowing the issuance and exchange of crypto assets personalized to the user.

Counterparty rose to fame upon its release, and still retains its reputation, thanks to the Rare Pepes, one of the most historically recognized collectibles in the entire ecosystem.On one occasion, John even transmitted a RarePepe from space, CriptoNoticias reported.

On March 16, his colleagues at the Bitcoin Trust Network project recognized John as the main developer of Counterparty, and issued an NFT conferring him the title of \"Counterparty Legend\".

Villar developed a technology known as bitcoin dispensers (Bitcoin Dispensers), a \"virtual dispensing machine\" that delivers NFT in exchange for BTC, one of his most notorious contributions to Counterparty.


John Villar, legend of Counterparty.Source: static.wixstatic.
John was, in the testimony of those who knew him, an exemplary father of a family who found in Bitcoin a tool to continue his endeavors, his learning and his permanence in Venezuela, a country impacted by a very serious economic, political and humanitarian crisis.

In a report by the AP News agency, published in 2017, some of the difficulties that Villar was experiencing to access medicine, due to the currency crisis in Venezuela, are recounted.However, John Villar used bitcoin and a messaging service to successfully obtain them.

Likewise, he even paid his work team, located in the city of Caracas, to work on the development of the game Pepe Cash (PEPECASH), the currency to buy the Rare Pepe from CounterParty.

John passed away on March 7, 2021.On John Villar\'s GitHub page you can see some of the projects he gave his input on.
Open Link.