Late Antivirus Pioneer John McAfee After Wagered His Own Penis on a Bitcoin Bet
Posted on: June 24, 2021, 12:30h.
Last updated on: June 24, 2021, 03:01h.
John McAfee was reported dead yesterday at the age of 75 right after an apparent suicide. The announcement came just hours following a Spanish court authorized his extradition to the United States to face tax charges that could have place him in prison for decades.
McAfee made his fortune — once an estimated $100 million — by founding the antivirus organization that bore his name. He sold the software organization in the early 1990s and led an eccentric, vice-filled life from then till his death.
More than the decades, he was accused of murder, drug dealing, involvement with prostitution, tax evasion, income laundering, and possession of illegal firearms. He hopped from a single locale to one more, stints such as time in Belize, Guatemala, Tennessee, and Spain.
But it was his last gamble that ultimately led to his death.
Seemingly immune to risk-taking, US authorities charged McAfee with running pump-and-dump schemes connected to the getting and selling of cryptocurrencies. US authorities allege that McAfee presented himself as an impartial investor, but was getting paid tens of millions of dollars by the digital coinage networks.
An Unusual Bet
In July of 2017, John McAfee notoriously created a bet couple of males would make. He staked his penis on the outcome of a wager.
McAfee promised that he would consume his own male sex organ if the price of bitcoin was not at $500,000 by 2020. In November of 2017, he doubled down, claiming he would do so if bitcoin didn’t hit $1 million.
When I predicted Bitcoin at $500,000 by the end of 2020, it employed a model that predicted $5,000 at the end of 2017. BTC has accelerated a lot quicker than my model assumptions. I now predict Bircoin at $1 million by the finish of 2020. I will nonetheless consume my dick if incorrect. pic.twitter.com/WVx3E71nyD
— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) November 29, 2017
Of course, bitcoin never ever came anywhere near $1 million. He conceded in July of 2020 that he didn’t completely think it would.
“Did I think that number? Of course not!” McAfee mentioned in early 2020, admitting that the bet was just a “ruse” that “worked.”
Bitcoin’s all-time higher cost was realized in April of 2021 when it reached $64,829.14. That’s $935,170.86 brief of where bitcoin needed to be in order to save McAfee’s reproductive organ.
Cryptocurrency Casino
Online gambling with slot machines and table games is only legal in five US states. As a result, a lot of gamblers in search of a wager from the comfort of their own homes have turned to offshore world wide web casino networks.
Since the emergence of bitcoin, and the numerous subsequent digital cryptocurrencies that have popped up given that, crypto casinos have turn out to be popular. The untraceable digital blockchain-powered internet sites provide anonymity to each players and offshore operators.
1 such web site is Wavesbet. Although it actually never took off or found a wide audience, in 2019 the platform announced a partnership with McAfee. The iGaming website stated McAfee would “bring advancements for the platform primarily based on his vast encounter in the blockchain industry.”
Tax Evasion Charges Dropped
With McAfee’s death, the US will drop the tax evasion charges against him. But McAfee surely didn’t dispute that he did not pay federal taxes.
In 2019, McAfee tweeted that he had not filed a tax return for eight years. He argued “taxation is illegal,” and that he “paid tens of millions currently and received Jack S**t in solutions.”
His lawyer in Spain, Javier Villalba, stated McAfee’s suicide came as a shock, and he had no inclination that his client was thinking about taking his own life.
“I had constant phone contacts with him,” Villalba told Reuters. “At no point had he shown any particular worry or clue that could let us consider this could have happened.”