In an interview with NewsBTC, John McAfee said Bitcoin will “skyrocket soon” to become “enormously valuable.” He also criticized social media sites for failing to stand up to the SEC which he described as “shadowy” and claims is “acting illegally.”

McAfee: “Bitcoin Will Become the Gold Standard”

McAfee defended his view that the bull market is “around the corner” by pointing out that its price has risen 42% since June 25. He said the correction in price from $20,000 was not necessary and due to “people misunderstanding the market and not thinking it through.” He denied the possibility of another two-year decline, saying the six-month decline was “against all odds.”

McAfee said he was not at all nervous that the price of Bitcoin is 57% below schedule to reach $1 million by the end of 2020. He has a bet to eat his manhood on live TV if it fails to reach to meet the deadline. He pointed to the 40,000 millionaires in the world and asked what would happen if each of them wanted only one of the 17 million available Bitcoin.

McAfee: “We’re going to have something that’s enormously valuable. If you look at the number of businesses that accept Bitcoin and the number of people who are using it, it’s increasing dramatically. Pure mathematics says it’s got to skyrocket and skyrocket very soon.”

He acknowledged that Bitcoin will be replaced as the major form of payment, pointing to many users using Ethereum. However, he argued that despite its flaws as a scalable means of payment, it’s about “acceptance and clearly Bitcoin has been accepted.” He said gold and paper bills don’t have much intrinsic worth but have value because it is “assumed by the people who hold it.”

“Bitcoin will become the gold standard. Bitcoin will always be that standard, that you can keep in a wallet offline somewhere and think, this is my retirement income. It is the grandfather; it will always be the best. When people were taught about cryptocurrencies, they were made to say Bitcoin instead of currencies. That’s how prominent it is,” he said.

McAfee Wants to Remove “Illegal and Shadowy” SEC

McAfee told NewsBTC “the SEC needs to be replaced or simply removed.” He argued it is “acting illegally” by claiming ICOs are securities when this contradicts a supreme court ruling in the 1950’s that defined them. He said “it seems like” SEC chairman Jay Clayton is scared of meeting with him on air following his debate with the FBI in 2016.

McAfee criticized social media companies for “kowtowing to the government” and “acting like sub-agencies to the U.S. government.” He said Google and Facebook regularly give up information about their customers to the CIA and the FBI. He said they should be “banner wavers of personal freedom and individuality and community” but acknowledged that he has submitted to the same government pressure.

He said: “Like Facebook and Twitter, we are afraid of the SEC. We’re here in America so they can serve me with a subpoena and harass me for the rest of my life. Just because the SEC is so shadowy about its attitude about ICOs and tokens they’re leaning heavily against them to make ICOs securities. It’s just simply too dangerous for us.”

McAfee has also challenged JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon to debate with him. Dimon has previously called Bitcoin a “fraud” but has since regretted that claim. However, McAfee argues that Bitcoin threatens the global banking infrastructure and claims the industry is trying to stop the spread of cryptocurrencies.

He said: “When Jamie Dimon says these radical things, he knows very little about cryptocurrency, all he knows is they are a risk to his business, which is banking. That, he knows very well and, as such, he has a vested interest in killing it off if possible. Although that’s not possible, cryptocurrencies are like Pandora’s box, that box has been opened. You are never going to stuff it back in, that’s not possible.”

McAfee also said he would probably lose if he debated with U.S. President Donald Trump but argued that on the right topic, he may come out on top.

He said: “Now that would be a fun debate, probably not, he’s way too polished. He’s got way too many advisers but it depends on the subjects. If it was the relative talents of Bangkok prostitutes versus Philippine prostitutes, I would win. On most subjects of importance, probably not.”

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