(Forbes) Controversial fugitive John McAfee has launched an astonishing attack on Facebook’s planned cryptocurrency Libra by blasting it as an “abomination,” and he says it will give CEO Mark Zuckerberg never-before-seen domination over its users.
McAfee, 74, who claims he’s on the run from the CIA, spoke exclusively to The Edge (who source underperforming companies for activist involvement, Special Situations and Spinoffs) from his undisclosed hiding spot about his beta McAfeeDEX decentralized exchange.
He insisted he is capable of thwarting authorities’ attempts to find him using a makeshift Faraday Cage made up of things like tinfoil to block electromagnetic fields, and he said digital currencies will replace traditional currencies in a decade.
In his view, “Facebook's Libra is an abomination, a twisted perversion of cryptocurrency. By its very definition, cryptocurrency wants to free us from control, but Libra is nothing but control.
“It is monitoring everything that you do. And, in conjunction with US government, it makes the cage in which you live even tighter and smaller.”
McAfee launched his exchange called McAfeeDEX in October, revealing it is completely anonymous with no names, documents, email or bank information with unmonitored private transactions.”
He continued: “We keep no monies, we ask for no monies. We ask for no information whatsoever. If you’re accessing it through America, that's fine, or Terra del Fuego - we don't care.
“We charge no listing fees. You press a button and put in the technical specs of your token and it's added. Five new tokens have already been added by the users of the system.”
John insisted that no one is capable of shutting the exchange down, and he has big plans for 2020.
“It can't be shut down because it's in smart contracts on the blockchain. We have almost 30 portals already and hopefully by the end of next year, we'll have 1,000 thousand portals.
“We'll be immune from any government control or monitoring or for anything else.”
Controversially, John adds that the benefits to users will help them evade taxation.
He added, “One advantage will be taxation. By that I mean, if you don't like paying income taxes, you won't have to.
“Another advantage is if you want to manage your financial information and activities privately, then you can. And if you don't like the government monitoring where your money comes from and where it goes, we can help you there.
“It’s the tool that people need to free themselves from the financial slavery that exists now, and that slavery is to the government that controls the currency, or the Fed or whatever the agency is. You free yourself from that.
“Currencies like the US dollar, the Japanese yen, the Euro - in ten years, there won't be such a thing.”
McAfee, who made a fortune from anti-virus software, claims it is impossible to hack blockchain. He said, “They can't be hacked. Not with existing computer technology. Maybe in 20 years, but not now.”
Additionally, he has tremendous things to say about Beijing-based crypto pioneer Jihan Wu, CEO of Bitmain, who sacked fellow co-founder Ketuan Zhan last week.
Of Wu, McAfee said, “He is the most humble, unassuming man I have ever met. Unmarried, uninterested in anything other than his dream, and he gets through that as he's accomplishing it. He accomplishes it with such subtlety, so nuanced, that I can't help but admire him. He's a good friend of mine.”
Of his recent activities, McAfee admits a grand jury was formed in January to investigate himself, his wife Janice and four staff on unspecified charges of tax fraud, and he has been on the run since.
They first went to Cuba, but he explained that a general called him and his wife to a meeting after the US government demanded they turn them over, and they were given 72 hours to leave the country.
McAfee continued, “We left Cuba and, four days later, we sailed into the Dominican Republic and we were surrounded by Special Forces with fully automatic weapons. We ended up our last day getting out of jail and barely escaping, and you know that was just set up by the CIA.
“We went to England, left England, and, for the past three months, we have been in hiding. We have very spectacular surroundings. It's tin foil everywhere and signal cameras.
“If there's anyone that can't be found, that has the ability not to be found, it's me. I live in a world where I know I can have no secrets. I know that I'm being listened to right here, right now. The advantage I have is nobody knows where I am.
“They can read the signal, but I promise you, the multiple layers of serious hard VPMs that I'm using and other facilities cannot be broken.
“So, they can't find me. But they can sure as hell monitor me. And they are, and I know that. So I live with that fact.”
In addition, he feels uncomfortable with the infamy he’s garnered through his public image.
He reveals he was unhappy with the director of Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee, which was produced for streaming on Netflix.
He added, “There are so many documentaries and books being written, and I could care less. There's a movie coming out, next year, starring Michael Keaton and Seth Rogen called King of the Jungle, about my life in Belize. I'm not gonna watch it. Who gives a flying f***, you know?
“I live in my shoes, I know who I am. I don't need to watch a ‘documentary’ to know. I never went on camera with the director. I never cooperated with her. I knew what it was, it was simply a hit piece.”
With his life on the run and future uncertain, John McAfee says he always relies on one piece of advice: “I’ll be frank with you, and it has served me well, my grandfather told me when I was six to trust no one but yourself.”
