Interview with John McAfee | Cointelegraph

I think in five years you will begin to see the collapse of fiat.

Do you do any kind of research before, obviously, the political campaign and you running for president, Are you going to take any actions with it?

Obviously I couldn't be, but no one's going to like me. President, please go ahead.

Do you have any assumption about the bitcoin price?

Obviously. So while the price is going down, who cares? That's a temporary issue. I don't know when it's going to pop, but I can tell you it's going to pop.

Tell us the story of you getting into the crypto world. When was that? Why was that?

I got into it in 2011 by peer pressure. My friends and past employees literally forced me to read Satoshi's white paper. And when I had done that, I saw immediately the beauty and the power of the mathematics and I saw that this was potentially world changing. And it has turned out to be. And I hope that the world changes in the appropriate direction because we're sort of at a cusp. It can go both ways. It can go either to the side of totalitarianism or to the side of complete personal freedom. And I'm lobbying for the second option.

How would that go?

With the first option, totalitarianism is that we as a community buy into the government's demands that they control cryptocurrency, or that they make their own cryptocurrency and insist that that is the only one that we use, whereas they have no real power to stop us from doing what we want. My fear is that we will fall into the same old habit of being sheep, not wanting to be, you know, outlaws or revolutionaries, not wanting to take risk that we will accept what the governments propose and then it's all over.

How can we prevent that?

By understanding, by information, by education, by self awareness. At 3 o', clock, this is what I will be talking about.

You've got a big platform on Twitter. How many followers?

850,000.

So you've decided to promote cryptocurrencies, right?

Well, I decided to promote. I tell people what I believe, what I'm doing and what I believe in. Things like the medical currencies like Docademic. I mean, health is certainly everyone's primary concern when we're not healthy, right? It's a very important part of our lives. And to have products like Docademic's Cool Emotions, which even moves it into the area of psychology. Let's assume that a tragedy befalls us and we're about to jump off of a bridge. You have the option of pulling out your phone. They have applications that are working right now. Pressing the button, saying cool emotions and a psychologist appears. What's your problem? I'm about to kill myself. Why don't you step down from the bridge and let's talk about it. That's power. It's free for the first one at least. That will save so many lives, will it not? Or on the medical side, you fall down the stairs, you think you broke your arm, you push the other button, the doctor says, well, show me your arm. And the guy says, no, you probably just brained it. If it still hurts you tomorrow, if it spells up, go to a doctor. That's power.

So you should understand that with the platform as big as yours, you have a lot of influence on price of any particular cryptocurrency on people. So my question is, do you do any kind of research before posting?

Obviously, because these are the things that I'm interested in. These are the things that, that I wish to have my company invest in themselves. So sure, of course I do. I don't go around just nilly willy posting things. I have a preference for privacy coins. That's just my personal preference. But there's a reason for it. Many people do not know that if you use Bitcoin or Ethereum, let's say you and I have a transaction. I need your wallet address in order to send you. You receive my wallet address in the transaction forever after, I can look in your wallet and see how much money you have, where it goes and what comes in. Now, if people would look into your bank account the same way, you would not be happy. And yet this is the reality with privacy coins, that's not possible. No one can look in, you and I can have a transaction. The only thing you know is that you did receive the Bitcoin or you did receive the cryptocurrency and that I did send it. And that's all we need to know. So obviously I would like a world a little more private than what we have now in crypto. So yeah, so they say. Why are you promoting privacy coins? Well, you would too if you truly understood the problem with the current coins. I know about everything because everybody comes to me with their proposals, with their suggestions, and when I get 500 people in a few days recommending that I look at something, well, I'll look at it, you know, do an analysis and if I like it, I'll talk about it.

How do you do an analysis?

Well, my company has an audit division that actually audits Companies, you know, we look at the website, look at the founders. We check out the founders to make sure they're valid, that they are who they say they are, that they haven't been in legal problems, that they haven't scammed people before. We look at their project, their product, and say, is it a good one? Is it even doable? If it's doable, can these people do it? So we do a full audit.

You've had a thread on Twitter about the exchange hit btc. Can you elaborate on what?

Well, again, when a large number of people are all saying the same thing, and they will say it to me, obviously, because my people that read the tweets or read the DMs and emails, you know, listen and come to me. If we get 2,000 people complaining about the same company, then suddenly we start checking it out, because you can complain about somebody, but it could be groundless. So we select a few. We write them back and say, send us your ether scans. Can you give us proof? And yes, they've been stealing, or not outright stealing, but stealing in very subtle ways. Keeping your money for six months. What are they doing with it during that time? Charging you exorbitant fees to get your money back. So, no, they're not a good company.

I'm sorry, did somebody from HEBDC try to contact you into.

No, of course not. No. That's typical of companies that are scamming people, because if they contact me, I'm going to say, hey, look at this. Explain it. Or they don't want to explain it.

Are you going to take any actions with it?

You know, listen, I think they've lost so much business that they will just disappear on their own.

Is there any other exchange that we need to look up to or be careful about? Do you receive. You say you receive complaints.

We do. We do. Until we can absolutely verify the validity of complaints, I don't want to say anything.

Okay, fair enough. Where do you stand on Centralized vs Decentralized Exchanges?

Decentralized, obviously, because we have to have them in order to totally free ourselves from potential government control. Right now, a government can shut down any centralized exchange by pulling the electricity, arresting the employees, setting fire to the building, busting up the computer. Want anything they want. With decentralized exchanges, no one can do anything. What do you do when 10 million people are all participating in this exchange, not even aware that it's happening? It's in the background on their smartphones or their laptops or their desktops. You cannot shut that down and then we will have ultimate power.

So the political campaign and you running for president?

Yes.

Is this happening?

Yes, of course. No, I ran in 2016 and it happens. Okay. I ran on the Libertarian platform as a Libertarian. This time I think I'll win it. But it doesn't even matter. The last time I still got the national stage. I was on the national debates with the Libertarian Party and I got to say what I wanted to say. And last time I was talking about lapses in cybersecurity. This time I want to talk about personal freedom and how cryptocurrency can help us achieve that.

So that was my next question. Whether you're going to bring the cryptocurrency in your pre campaign. Are you going to talk about it?

That's all I want to talk about. See, I don't want to be president. I couldn't be. No one's going to like me president, please God. However, I've got the right to run if I have enough support, and I definitely have enough support.

So you're going to use the exposure that you have to talk about cryptocurrency?

Yes, that I will legally have access to the national stage. I had enough support last time. I've got even more support this time. So I will have access to that stage.

So you'll be talking about cryptocurrency as money or as a way of freedom?

As a way of freedom, only privacy, coins or no, it has nothing to do with privacy versus non privacy. It has to do with the concept of us taking control of the financial systems that we live with. Right now we have none. Our financial systems are controlled by governments, the Fed, people in power. They get to choose how much money is in circulation at any time. They get to change interest rates. They can deflate or inflate. We're not free. If we have a permissionless transaction, government's not involved.

Do you think it will happen? Because we've been saying that since then. Invention of Bitcoin.

That's because you're young and you're anxious and you want things to happen immediately.

So we're talking about the long term.

I think in 5 years time fiat will be on its last legs. It will disappear in five years, but.

It'S a pretty short time.

It's not because it's been happening for 15 years, right? Okay. Or it's been happening for 10 years already. No, it's not a long time. Not even. Not a short time. I think in five years you will begin to see the collapse of Fiat.

Collapse, meaning we're going to.

We're not using it anymore. Collapse. For example, when the demand for a currency disappears, the currency disappears. I mean, the currency's value goes from whatever it is to zero. That's what I mean by collapse.

So we've recently celebrated the 10 years of Bitcoin.

Right.

What would you say about the state of the industry? Are you happy with where it's going? Because it's been 10 years already.

Well, when you say the industry, that's a very broad statement.

What is bitcoin industry?

Is bitcoin an industry? People are always thinking that there is a Bitcoin incorporated or, you know, I know what you're talking about. Okay. Number one, I don't think that Bitcoin will be the number one player in the field of cryptocurrency. Number one, it's not private. When people understand that it's not, they will start to migrate. Number two, it's not a bitcoin industry. And it's not. It's a cryptocurrency industry of which bitcoin is simply a moving part. What do exchanges do? They have Bitcoin and you exchange it for Ethereum, which exchange for Litecoin, which you might exchange for. For Monero. It's simply one cog in a very massive wheel which is dependent upon all the other cryptocurrencies. So as this becomes more and more apparent, Bitcoin as the name for what we're doing will simply be one of the coins in the crypto industry.

That was my question, actually, because back then it was called the bitcoin industry.

That's right. But it's really the crypto industry. That's the more proper term.

You've mentioned that it's not going to be the first one. Are you talking about any particular cryptocurrency in the market?

We can't predict that. Something may crop up six months now which is the end all. To end alls we go. That's it. That's what we're all looking for. But it doesn't have to be one. There doesn't have to be one currency. There can be a thousand cryptocurrencies that we all use in exchange. And why? Because some people prefer this over that speed of transactions. Some people prefer low transaction costs. Some people will prefer the functional features of things like docademic, where I've got the coins and maybe I'm trading them, but gee, I think I broke my arm and I'm going to put a couple in the slot and call a doctor Right. So. And many of us may use a dozen or more or all of them. Wallets in the future will support every currency, I believe, and so we don't have to think or worry about, oh, my God, this versus that, you know, and the wallet will have the intelligence to go, I'd like to buy some ice cream. And they'll go, you know what? The best coin for buying ice cream is the ice cream coin or whatever. And it will do the exchanges for you. And you will be completely oblivious. All you'll know is you have a crypto wallet and it makes all your decisions for you.

First of all, how do you make your assumption about the price? And the second one, do you have any assumption about the Bitcoin price yet?

The Bitcoin? I have definitely made an assumption about the Bitcoin price.

How do you make a decision on.

Well, it's very simple. I'm a mathematician. As you run the numbers, the number of people using Bitcoin and the number of transactions, it's escalating tremendously. That's the true value. So while the price is going down, who cares? That's a temporary issue created by artificial pressures. So the true value is going to eventually be based upon usage. And if you track the usage curve, a million dollars by the end of 2020 is conservative. And simultaneously, keep in mind. All right, as more and more people use cryptocurrencies, they flee fiat currencies, which devalues them. So keep in mind, a million dollars in 2020 may not be a million dollars in today's dollars. Okay? And so while Bitcoin is rising, the dollar is deflating. So a million dollars in the end of 2020 may only buy you a toothpick. I'm not sure. Okay.

I hope it won't get to that. Okay, so, and the last question is, like you said, million dollars, is it gonna be just the jump or it's a permanent price?

I have no clue. I don't know when it's gonna come. But listen, if you apply enough pressure, like if you're blowing up a balloon and you keep on pumping air, and I don't know when it's gonna pop, but I can tell you it's gonna pop.

Cointelegraph, like subscrib.