John McAfee Ups Bitcoin Target Price

To call John McAfee a bit of a character in the world of cryptocurrency would be the very epitome of an understatement. The British-born multi-millionaire computer programmer and software company founder has long been recognised as an eccentric in the altcoin community (and, if we’re honest, long before that) and never one to shy away from a contentious comment. In July of 2017 he predicted that Bitcoin would attain a value of $500,000 by the end of 2020. A bold assertion indeed, considering the digital currency leader was hovering around the $2,500 mark at that point. Surely nobody could expect a 20000% increase in any commodity’s value over the course of a couple of years?

You’d think not, but McAfee was adamant, even making the bold promise that, if it failed to reach that target, he would “eat my d*** on live television.” McAfee was an early adopter of Bitcoin, finding its decentralised ethic appealing to his own unique mindset, and has continued to tout the benefits of the currency ever since, so his boast was perhaps not so surprising. Indeed, as Bitcoin spiked towards the tail end of 2017, it seemed that he might have had a point. Within six months of his prediction, its value had increased eight-fold, following a flood of new investors, and a rash of mining consortia anxious to pluck out those elusive remaining bitcoins. Following the sharp decline in the digital currency’s fortunes it might be expected that McAfee would keep quiet about his bet, but instead he has doubled down and predicted that it is more likely to reach $1 million come 2020. The reason for this new prediction? He says he is simply extrapolating backwards from what he believes Bitcoin’s end-game will be. As bitcoins become ever more scarce towards the end of its run, the cost of mining them will get exponentially higher, which would only be done if the value of the coin itself is sufficient to justify the expenditure. At current rates of mining, McAfee believes that we can extrapolate backwards from the cost of mining those last handfuls of bitcoins and establish the final market pricing accordingly. Indeed, he is so confident, he declares that $1 million is only the absolute baseline – the bet he knows with 100% certainty he cannot fail to win. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo9zaBZ1VIo Featured Image Original Source: Flickr - Great Photo By Gage Skidmore