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8 hours ago | Maya Leonard
John McAfee has emerged as one of the most popular but controversial figures in the cryptocurrency space. Let's take a quick look at its history.
Early life
McAfee began its entrepreneurial career early, at fourteen, selling magazines with home delivery. At the end of the 60s, he began working in a company that codified punch card systems. He was there, he had been informed for the first time of basic computer science. Later, he got a job at the Missouri Pacific Railroad. There, he was working on a new IBM computer system, calibrating train schedules and other similar tasks.
During her time in Missouri Pacific, McAfee began experimenting with psychedelics. According to Wired, he worked under the influence of LSD. His psychedelic efforts did not stop there. One day, he bought a DMT bag – one of the most powerful psychedelics out there – and he snorted a sentence. Since he did not feel anything, he decided to take the whole bag. As you can imagine, the result was horrible. He went out of his mind, ran out and hid behind a garbage can. He heard voices and became paranoid. McAfee has never returned to Missouri Pacific.
Associated McAfee
In the '70s, McAfee held several jobs and even worked at NASA's Space Studies Institute in New York. In the 80s, he worked at the aerospace company Lockheed and founded McAfee Associates while he was still employed there. In 1989, he completely committed himself to McAfee Associates, and later the company became a major player in the antivirus software industry.
After the company became public, McAfee sold its stake in the company and switched to other initiatives. He earned about $ 100 million from the sale of his stake.
In the beginning, he kept a low profile. He gave advice to young startups and worked on some of his projects. Among these was PowWow, one of the first instant messaging platforms.
Controversial stay in Belize
We made rapid progress until 2008. The economic collapse did not bypass it: a report says that of the aforementioned $ 100 million, it remained only about $ 4 million. In that period, at the end of the 2000s, McAfee sold its land and moved to Belize. There, he planned to start a business involved in the production of antibiotics, which later became known as Quorumex. He collaborated with the microbiologist Allison Adonizio. He believed he could build a product that used tropical plants to fight diseases.
In Belize, he lived an extravagant lifestyle. He often visited a bar known as Lover & # 39; s Bar. Every day there, he looked at people, he was totally obsessed with it. After six months of this strange behavior, he wrote that "my fragile connection with the world of educated society has, without a doubt, been severed".
In 2012, Gregory Faull, one of the McAfee neighbors in Belize, was filmed. McAfee fought with paranoia after being questioned by government officials and eventually fled the country. McAfee was arrested in Guatemala and accused of illegal entry into the country. While in custody in Guatemala, McAfee was facing various medical problems. Subsequently, he was expelled from the country and deported to the United States. The story was fascinating and captured the public's attention, while the details about his eccentric life-style in Belize became almost legendary.
McAfee seems to have fun in the spotlight and since then has provoked several public provocations. In 2013, for example, he uploaded "How To Uninstall McAfee Antivirus", a video in which he, surrounded by women, drugs and guns, uninstalls the product associated with his name from his computer.
Will McAfee's Bitcoin prediction come true?
In recent years, McAfee has become a staunch supporter of cryptocurrency. Perhaps his most (in) moment in this context is his prediction that 1 BTC will reach $ 1,000,000 by the end of 2020. Although the forecast seems extreme, it is not particularly noteworthy alone. Of course, McAfee spiced things up and said that if he was wrong he would eat his penis live on television. There is also a dedicated website that tracks the status of its prediction, and at the moment it does not seem too good.
The image of John McAfee during a conference was taken by Gage Skidmore and is available on flickr.
