Politics, race and religion could all be fair game for dinnertime conversation with John McAfee, but if you’re a blockchain skeptic, you might want to keep your mouth shut.
McAfee, the computer programmer and businessman behind the once-multibillion dollar software company that bore his name, fiercely believes that cryptocurrency as well as blockchain, the technology that allows most cryptocurrencies to work -- will completely upend life as we know it.
Blockchain is a platform that can securely verify transactions and identities through a network of multiple decentralized records. It’s a new way to interact with others because the platform can both securely verify who you’re doing business with and track the origin and path of whatever it is you’re exchanging. This is true whether you’re exchanging cryptocurrency trading commodities such as soybeans or authenticating designer handbags.
Over the past decade, a string of bizarre events shrouded McAfee in controversy -- from murder allegations in Belize to a short-lived U.S. presidential run. He’s now propelled himself full-force into the blockchain world, and he charges $105,000 per tweet to promote different cryptocurrencies. McAfee has advised or worked with about 17 cryptocurrency companies, but his most recent project is Docademic a company aiming to provide free virtual access to doctors worldwide using artificial intelligence and blockchain.
Why do we believe in the future of cryptocurrency?
Generally, the crypto field is on the leading edge of everything. It’s not just medical science, but you name it: social media, self-help, everything. I was even contacted by a collection of professional sex workers who founded a company called Pink Date who wanted to create their own currency just for prostitutes and sex workers. I thought, “Well, that’s a great idea,” so I’m working with them. Every field of life is being enhanced, bettered, made cleaner, safer, more convenient and cheaper with cryptocurrency and the blockchain.
In five years, there will be nothing that’s not on the blockchain. This is equivalent to when the internet first came out and companies started getting their own websites. People said, “This is a fad. It’ll never last.” Show me a single company today that doesn’t have a website. It’s going to be the same thing with cryptocurrency, but cryptocurrency, rather than enhancing existing businesses, will totally transform them.
Five years from now, we believe crypto currency will have taken over. What will everyday life look like as far as purchasing power?
There will not be a single bank. The U.S. government and every government will have had to figure out how to maintain their nation without getting income taxes because you won't be able to collect them because you will not know where the money is, who has it and where it's been transferred to.
You don’t have to go down to the bank to do a wire transfer. You open up your wallet, and 30 seconds later, you’ve done it. You don’t have to do anything related to a bank because your wallet does it all now. It astonishes me that people put up with these banks -- to go into the bank, to drive two miles, stand in line for five minutes and drive back home to send money to another country. Do you realize how insane that is in a world where I do it in 30 seconds while I’m still in bed? Number one: Life is going to be easier. Will there be cards and things? Of course not. Why deal with that stuff when all I do is take my wallet and scan it? Everybody will pick a cryptocurrency that they like; however, the transfer between them is going to be instantaneous and virtually free.
For someone with a general understanding of the concept of blockchain who hasn’t been able to dive deeper, how could they dig into this?
Someone gives a demonstration for a new design for a rocket. We all think about it in the middle of the presentation. All of a sudden, it’s Forget the rocketship. I have a new design for a rocket engine. Then someone says, “It’s not a rocket engine. It’s the fuel system.” So now we’re building a fuel system, and someone else says, “You know what? It’s actually not the fuel system. It’s the special fuel that we have to use.” Someone says, “Wait a minute -- it’s not the special fuel. It’s how you refine it.” We went from a rocket ship to an oil-refining business. You get your friends together and just see what happens. And instead of just doing that, think: Who are some really smart people in this world that I could sucker into working with me? You contact them, and you invite them over. Then, they have smart friends. Then maybe the smart friend you thought was smart isn’t smart and doesn’t contribute because they’re still in the old mindset: “I have an idea. Let’s do it.” That’s not going to work, so you throw him or her out and get somebody else.
You don’t start a business going, “I’ve got an idea.” That’s nonsense. You start a business saying, “I know some clever people.” We have been in business here for less than a year. We have changed our focus so many times I cannot count. From supporting coins to creating a better coin market cap system to creating a better wallet I never had this idea when I started. These are things I would never have thought up, and yet that's what we're doing.