hi everyone this is charles hoskinson i uh just got the news from el mundo which large newspaper over in spain and it looks like reuters is starting to confirm it that today john mcafee killed himself mcafee is one of the most enigmatic and interesting people in the cryptocurrency space and in the history of computing he was 75 years old and mcafee was a pioneer in the early days for antivirus software anti-malware software which is where many people know his name mcafee antivirus still floats around i think it's an asset of intel at this point he was also a deeply troubled person his father killed himself when i think mcafee was about 15 years old there was numerous issues with substance abuse and alcohol and he lived an incredibly colorful life after he sold his company he went into a variety of lifestyle businesses from running around the jungles of belize looking for alternatives to antibiotics to things in the air and because of the drama that followed him there was always a controversy whether it be fighting with the government mysterious deaths many girlfriends he was a character unto himself i remember years ago watching him flee belize into into guatemala real time tweeting his escape from the government and then upon arriving in guatemala having a suit made issuing a press conference getting arrested staging a heart attack and then finding a way to be deported to the united states instead of belize in the united states he decided to change industries and enter our industry and leverage his history and information security and it was a really unique moment where he had an opportunity to reinvent himself in a new way as this industry tends to do for people unfortunately his demons got the best of him and instead of building businesses that were completely on the up and up he made the decision to he made the decision to uh let his vices and desire uh overcome him and he got involved in all kinds of things such as advertising icos or tokens pay-to-play type of things uh and it's not clear how much of that he was directly responsible for how much of it he just liked being in the moment i personally met john mcafee i met him in malta years ago at a conference and he was as expected a larger-than-life figure sun tanned carrying a court everywhere he went there was a large crowd people deeply engaged with him and had a huge personality the nature of suicide is still yet not yet completely confirmed but it looks like it's the case because one of the largest newspapers in spain and u.s media is starting to already uh say that it happened there's also several journalists tweeting that the depart us department of justice has also confirmed the death and more information will become apparent the reasons for the suicide seemed self-evident mcafee was 75 years old and the extradition to the u.s was approved he was looking at over 30 years in jail if convicted and likely would have been given the case that was presented against him even with a plea bargain and it is unlikely mcafee would have survived long enough to not escape prison so it seems that he decided to choose ending his life there in a spanish prison rather than a u.s prison it's a moment for the industry to reflect you know as much as we enjoy our entertainment as much as we enjoy the crazy annex of people a lot of people who have these crazy annex are deeply complicated and hurt in some way and mental health is just as important as physical health and a proper balance of these things is often underappreciated when one is an entrepreneur there's no doubt in my mind that mcafee had demons that he couldn't resolve however for every mcafee that we know there are dozens that we don't know and every time an event like this happens it's an opportunity for us to reflect on that reality and understand that society needs to be more accommodating and society needs to be a bit better at intervening and helping those who need that help for my part it was a really enjoyable time meeting mcafee and i always imagined that there may have been an opportunity somewhere in some way that we could have collaborated on something for example he ran for the libertarian party in 2016. as many of you know i'm a member of the libertarian party we did reach out to them occasionally we'd talk over private messages on twitter and the most recent dialogue was when i said that adam back was satoshi and we had a lively conversation over pm about that prior to his arrest uh and i was always secretly rooting for him hoping that he'd find his way and the past would be set aside and makusy could find peace in our industry on the concepts and ideals of it and it's really unfortunate that that couldn't happen and it seems like this story has come to an end so the burden is upon us now to find meaning in it and the burden is upon us now to figure out a way to move forward and hopefully gain some wisdom rest in peace john we'll miss you and i'll miss you cheers
