Who is John McAfee?

John McAfee is a computer security pioneer who is considered the inventor of the antivirus.

Born in an American military base in the UK, McAfee holds both US and UK nationalities.

His McAfee antivirus product was an enormous success during the IBM PC boom of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. He later sold the company, which still bears his surname.

McAfee and Cryptocurrencies

John McAfee was a cryptocurrency early adopter who turned it into his full time occupation in 2017.

Since then, he’s been a constant presence at cryptocurrency-related conventions as well as having an active social media presence.

I am convening the Red Scarf Society again – August 11th, 8 P.M., Munich.

Our official meeting place.

You may bring up to two guests.

Since it is Summer, red shirts will be acceptable.

If you are not a Society member but can figure out our locale, you are also welcome.

Red! pic.twitter.com/2yvJ5YpiUf

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) August 10, 2020

In 2019, McAfee proposed the creation of Cuba’s first cryptocurrency, a project that apparently hasn’t been realized.

Ghost Cryptocurrency

In 2020, McAfee released the Ghost cryptocurrency.

Ghost is a privacy-centric crypto which uses a Proof of Stake consensus mechanism.

It was originally forked from Particl cryptocurrency and is implemented in the C++ programming language.

Million Dollar Prediction Controversy

In July 2017, McAfee made a bold prediction about the price of Bitcoin: BTC would be worth U$ 500k in three years, or he’d eat his own @#$% on national television:

if not, I will eat my dick on national television.

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) July 17, 2017

He later doubled down on this prediction, increasing it to U$ 1 million.

It will be $1 mil by the end of 2020 as predicted or I’ll eat my dick. Impossible, mathematically, to lose that bet.

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) December 10, 2019

In 2020 he recanted both predictions and said he just wanted to generate buzz to get more users onboard.

Links

Wikipedia

McAfee No Longer Eating his own @#$

Ghost Cryptocurrency by McAfee

Feature photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia