John McAfee is an enigma.
He built one of the biggest antivirus companies to date, and yet it's what happened after this chapter of his life that made him a legend.
Here's a look into who the man once was, what he became, and where he is now.
Trust me, it's a wild ride.
John McAfee was born in the UK in the mid-1940s. His parents moved to Roanoke, Virginia, when he was young, his early life was likely tough for the young man. His father, who worked as a road surveyor, was an alcoholic. When McAfee was 15, his father committed suicide, a fact McAfee says he wakes up with every day.
McAfee went to Roanoke College, where he also took up drinking. But the younger McAfee was a shrewd entrepreneur at a young age. His first business sold magazines door to door, which he says made him a small fortune.
He began working at a company that coded punch-card systems in the late '60s. This taught him the basics of early computing. Using this information, he landed a job at Missouri Pacific Railroad, where he helped the company use a newfangled IBM computer system to help calibrate train schedules.
McAfee moved to Silicon Valley in the 1970s. He held numerous jobs at various tech companies (including a stint at NASA’s Institute for Space Studies), all the while abusing drugs and alcohol. It wasn’t until 1983 that he got sober. He was working at the company Omex, and found his daily routine to be snorting coke at his desk and drinking a bottle of scotch, according to Wired. He says he felt alone and scared, and finally decided to seek help.
In the 1980s, McAfee worked at Lockheed. At the time, computers were still relatively new. In 1986 the first computer virus hit PCs. He read about these new programs that infiltrated computers and decided to start his own company to fight back.
McAfee Associates took off. By the end of the 1980s, the company was making $5 million a year, and some of the biggest companies in the world were using his antivirus platform.
McAfee quickly became even more successful, largely because of a computer virus called Michelangelo that hit the scene in 1992. McAfee called it one of the worst viruses to date, estimating it would infect as many as 5 million computers. At the time, computer antivirus platforms weren’t a product most people bought. Thanks to Michelangelo, there was a growing fever to protect computers from the virus.
Though only about tens of thousands of computers were infected, Michelangelo propelled McAfee to go public, and it turned into a multimillion-dollar business.
In 1994, McAfee set his sights for greener pastures and resigned from McAfee. Two years later he sold his shares, which gave him about $100 million.
Following his resignation, McAfee kept a relatively low profile. He would give young startups advice, lecture at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and also work on projects of his own. He’s worked on two social-network projects called PowWow and Tribal Voice, although neither hit the mainstream.
In 2008, however, the economic collapse caught up to him. One report said that his fortune had shrunk from $100 million to as little as $4 million.
In the late 2000s, McAfee decided to sell his land and move to Belize. There he wanted to go into the world of antibiotics. He believed that with the help of microbiologist Allison Adonizio he could build a product that used plants to combat illnesses. The company was called Quorumex.
But things in Belize got hairy. He became convinced that he was being watched all the time, according to Wired.
In Belize he frequented a saloon known as Lover’s Bar. He would reportedly go there everyday and watch the people go in and out. He slowly withdrew from everything else. He became obsessed watching the people in this poor part of town. After six months he wrote that he no longer had any connection to society.
In 2012, he was considered a "person of interest" when his neighbor Gregory Faull was shot to death, according to Reuters. McAfee fled after being questioned by the Belize government.
McAfee was arrested in Guatemala. This could have reportedly been because of Vice, which flew down two reporters to interview him. By mistake, Vice posted pictures of McAfee that still had GPS coordinates attached to them. Shortly after these events, Guatemalan police caught up with McAfee, arresting him on charges of illegal entry to the country. While detained, McAfee suffered a series of heart-related health issues. Ultimately, he was expelled from Guatemala and sent back to the US.
John McAfee, for many, will be more popularly known by his surname. As it would suggest he is indeed the founder of the McAfee antivirus software. It might surprise many to learn that despite the branding, he has had practically nothing to do with the company for nearly 20 years.
Well, except the occasional spat with the continued use of his name for the branding. A matter he took exception to when Intel bought the company in 2010. A matter which he recently settled with Intel after much legal wrangling.
In recent years John McAfee has kept himself with many other projects. He has, however, often been an outspoken supporter of cryptocurrency and particularly Bitcoin.
His support of Bitcoin has led him to make a number of Twitter posts in the last few days citing his continued support and for the general public not to ‘panic’!
He also says "btc has the lowest circulating supply of any coin"
Someone ask for the price of a btc in 2020, his answer below
Bitcoin price now is $11.091,40 so he's right.