John McAfee has long been known to be a bit of an eccentric character. The British-American programmer, businessman & tech guru pioneered software development when he created the world’s first antivirus software in the 80’s. After his resignation from the McAfee, Inc. in 1994, John remained as a vocal tech guru and commentator. Some of his recent notable actions include: competing in the Libertarian party primaries for the 2016 U.S. presidential elections and his advocacy for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.
In May 2016, John McAfee was appointed as CEO of MGT Capital Investments, a technology holding company. Shortly after being appointed as CEO of MGT, their whole business model pivoted to mining of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
It was around that time when John McAfee started advocating for cryptocurrencies. Some claim his advocacy is due to his Libertarian political leanings and his background in programming and tech in general. This claim is not far-fetched and does suit his background and political leanings. Others claim that his advocacy for cryptocurrencies is less based in idealism and more in monetary gain.
As of very recently, John McAfee announced that he is releasing his own unique cryptocurrency via an ICO (official coin offering) called McAfee coin (ticker: MCF). This is further solidifying John’s influence in the world of cryptocurrencies.
Another recent development is John McAfee’s “Coin of the day/week”, which he announces on twitter. Being a tech guru with over 506K followers on Twitter, each announcement causes a coin to spike sharply in value and later crash. McAfee claims that he is only trying to bring awareness to coins & tokens that have great promise. Others claim that it is a manipulative pump & dump campaign that damages the legitimacy of cryptocurrencies.
It is impossible to know whether John McAfee is genuine in his claims or simply manipulating his followers and fans. It is clear that John McAfee is going to stay in the cryptocurrency scene for years to come. Another certainty is that he will remain one of the more interesting cryptocurrency figureheads to listen to, due to his sense of humor and charisma. Whether his influence will benefit or damage the industry in the future is very hard to say.
