John McAfee, an American computer programmer and creator of the (notoriously) popular antivirus software, has led his Bitcoin company MGT Capital to launch its first bank of Bitcoin mining machines.

The launch of MGT Capital’s Bitcoin mining machines has been long awaited by the bitcoin community, particularly due to its unique utilisation of the hydro-powered bitcoin mining and innovative cooling system.

On August 25, McAfee revealed the company’s signature cooling system for the first time. The sophistication of its design implied the construction of a relatively large mining centre.

Cooling system for our Bitcoin mining operation. I could have used one of these when I lived in Arizona. pic.twitter.com/9ZrVjJZ9UM — John McAfee (@officialmcafee) August 26, 2016

A week later, McAfee released a photo of the actual mining rack, which seemed to have 4 rigs of 3 Antminer S9 Bitcoin miners offering 14.0TH/s and consuming around 1375W.

Based on the publicly released overview of MGT Capital’s main Washington-based mining centre, McAfee is operating a mining establishment with substantial hashpower, which has a line-up of at least 14 mining racks with 4 rigs of 3 Antminer S9 Bitcoin miners.

Our first bank.of Bitcoin mining machined ready to go live. pic.twitter.com/OVGq92X1lR — John McAfee (@officialmcafee) September 8, 2016

The bitcoin community responded optimistically and is seemingly pleased that the US is set to have its own mining centre that could potentially compete with large mining pools in China and other major facilities around the world.

Conflict with Kim Dotcom

Kim Dotcom, another internet entrepreneur actively working on a bitcoin-based product called Bitcache, suggested that the entire MGT Capital operation is a pump and dump deal, and called on bitcoin users to avoid dealing with the company.

“Stay away from MGT. They offered $500k for a no-substance partnership announcement with the sole purpose to pump up MGT stock. I declined,” Dotcom declared.

He further emphasised that McAfee was aware of this $500k deal and that he had a serious problem with the way the MGT Capital team is managed by McAfee.

“John knows about this,” Dotcom told TorrentFreak. “In my opinion it was all about pump and dump. All they always talked about was the effect of previous announcements on the stock price. That’s not how you create value or run a business.”

McAfee responded, and the exchange went for some time to amusement of some and outrage of others.

Although it is difficult yet to determine the legitimacy of MGT Capital operations, the pure size and volume of the mining centre suggest that McAfee is, in fact, trying to establish himself as a serious player on the market.

Joseph Young