Drinking, taking drugs, creating the most powerful antivirus software, then quitting and fleeing... The legendary boss McCafe has "come back" with the help of Bitcoin!

As the founder of the world-renowned antivirus software McAfee, John McAfee's past years can be described as "unruly". He took drugs for many years when he was young, and became a billionaire after leading McAfee to go public on the NASDAQ. However, at the peak of his life, he chose to resign and "live in seclusion", and even went on the run after becoming a suspect in the shooting of his neighbor...

Today, this "legendary boss" has risen again. This time, he has switched to producing Bitcoin. According to media reports, his company MGT will mine 225 Bitcoins per month, and the price of one Bitcoin has soared to more than $2,500.

McAfee became CEO of MGT Capital Investments last year and turned the video game company into a cybersecurity company. Although the company is still losing money, McAfee said it will soon turn profitable as it adds bitcoin mining operations with the goal of becoming the world's largest bitcoin mining company.

Focus on mining Bitcoin

MGT announced the start of its first phase of bitcoin mining operations in June last year. McAfee said the company is located in the mountains of Washington state and employs only two employees, whose main job is to maintain the air conditioning system of the mining computers. MGT has only a dozen employees in total.

Data shows that the company's sales in the first three months of this year were $312,000. Bitcoin mining was the company's only source of income in the first quarter, and the company currently has a net loss of $5.89 million. McAfee pointed out to the media on Wednesday, "We will definitely be profitable by the end of this year. Through the Bitcoin mining business, we will gain experience and expertise in blockchain, which can be applied to our security products."

MGT announced on Monday that it had received financing to purchase 1,000 mining computers using technology from Chinese company Bitmain, bringing the total number of MGT mining computers to nearly 1,300 and increasing its expected monthly bitcoin production from about 100 currently to 225.

In addition to mining bitcoin, MGT is also involved in the virtual currencies ethereum and monero on a small scale.

I don’t think Bitcoin is a bubble

Since the beginning of this year, the price of Bitcoin has skyrocketed. Some people believe that this virtual currency is in a bubble because more and more companies are rushing to develop the underlying technology of Bitcoin, and some investors are hyping it up just to avoid global political uncertainty.

McAfee doesn’t think Bitcoin is a bubble, noting: “No matter how much governments and regulators may scream and complain, a world-standard alternative currency will emerge. Bitcoin appears to be one of those alternatives… It can’t be a bubble.”

Bohemian life

McAfee is a legendary figure. Now in his seventies, he has lived a life more exciting than any movie.

McAfee was born in the UK in the 1940s and his family moved to the United States when he was very young. He had an unhappy childhood. His alcoholic father committed suicide when he was fifteen, leaving a great shadow on him. As an adult, he worked for several technology companies, including NASA Space Research Institute, but during this period he was still addicted to drugs and alcohol and was frequently fired by the company.

In 1986, the first computer virus "Brain" attacked personal computers. McAfee accidentally read about the virus in the newspaper, so he immediately decided to set up a company to fight back against the virus. He quickly became a darling of the media, constantly accepting interviews and reports from various newspapers and TV stations to publicize the harm of computer viruses. In the late 1980s, the company made a huge profit of 5 million US dollars a year, and some world-class companies purchased his anti-virus software.

In 1992, the emergence of the virus "Michelangelo" further helped McAfee to succeed. McAfee said at the time that "Michelangelo" was the most serious virus ever, which could infect 5 million computers, and its antivirus software was more popular with users. In fact, only tens of thousands of computers were infected by this virus, but McAfee took the opportunity to land on NASDAQ and became an antivirus software giant.

Unexpectedly, McAfee resigned from the company in 1994 and sold about $100 million worth of shares two years later. In 2008, he decided to move to Belize, a small country in Central America.

In November 2012, McAfee's beloved dog was poisoned to death one night, and a few days later his neighbor was shot to death. McAfee, who had a feud with his neighbor and was a gun enthusiast, became a "suspect" of the police. Before being questioned by the Belize government, he fled. McAfee, who became a "fugitive", not only did not keep a low profile, but instead "live-streamed" his life on the run on his blog.

In December, McAfee was arrested in Guatemala. It was reported that he was arrested because he revealed his GPS coordinates during an interview with two Vice reporters. Guatemalan police quickly took action and arrested McAfee for illegal entry. In the end, he was deported from Guatemala and sent back to the United States.

Although there was no direct evidence to prove that he killed his neighbor, he was left with great controversy after the incident.

After returning to the United States, McAfee's "wonderful" life continued. In September 2015, he submitted materials to the U.S. Federal Election Commission and officially announced his participation in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Last year, when Apple and the FBI were arguing over the issue of iPhone decryption, McAfee publicly declared, "If I can't crack the iPhone within three weeks, I will eat my shoes on live TV!" But three weeks later, he said that his high-profile remarks were entirely to attract public attention, "It was the funniest joke in the universe," and he wanted to let "the American public know the fact that the FBI was trying to fool them."

Some people may be curious about how McAfee sees himself. He once told the media, "I have never met anyone more capable than me."