McAfee eyes US presidency on a platform of cryptocurrency

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John McAfee, founder of McAfee Antivirus Software and a cryptocurrency advocate, has announced his intention to run for President of the United States (POTUS) in 2020.

The original announcement came in the form of a tweet back in June. It got serious on December 16, when McAfee teased the campaign would kick off in January, and provided a clip from his previous run for POTUS in 2016.

Beginning in January, I will kick off my campaign for POTUS in earnest. Expect to see vids way more intense than this example from my 2016 run. pic.twitter.com/ZFG9RyZuM3

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) December 17, 2018

In that 2016 campaign, McAfee first set up the new Cyber Party, before deciding to run in the Libertarian primaries. That campaign was primarily focused on citizen privacy in the wake of the war on terror. He lost that primary campaign to former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson.

In a follow up to his December 17 announcement, McAfee tweeted and posted a video that he was one item on his platform, replacing “currency” with cryptocurrencies, in order to free citizens from the secrecy and tyranny of their government.

Free yourselves from the current burden we all share: a government that was created to serve us that has instead become our master. How? By replacing the system used to control us – currency – with a system that we, the citizens control: Cryptocurrencies. pic.twitter.com/LYxWuK9Mu8

— John McAfee (@officialmcafee) December 17, 2018

Although he repeatedly states his campaign will kick off in January, followers of McAfee on Twitter can be forgiven if they think his campaign has already kicked off. McAfee announced his campaign manager on December 18, has started wearing suits in his daily Twitter videos, and posted more information about his campaign. He believes running an unorthodox, decentralized campaign is his best chance to win. Most recently, he has posted that he will refuse to take positions on immigration, foreign relations, education or other matters, as the only issue that matters to his campaign is freedom through cryptocurrency.

If any of this gets you excited, it would probably be a good time to calm down. McAfee doesn’t expect to win. In multiple replies to his followers, McAfee has played down expectations, telling one follower his slogan will be “Dont [sic] vote for me”, and replying to another “I cannot win any more than Trump can fly.” It appears his goal is to simply raise awareness around cryptocurrencies, and question the status quo.

If nothing else, McAfee is sure to get some attention. He has repeatedly kept his name in headlines, promoting the Bitfi ‘unhackable’ wallet, and memorably promising to eat his own private parts on national television if Bitcoin Core (BTC) did not reach $500,000 by 2020.