John McAfee, the two-time U.S. presidential candidate and antivirus pioneer, has announced he is leaving the Ghost cryptocurrency project, stating that it will fail “without a doubt.” In a series of tweets on August 19, 2020, McAfee expressed frustration with the project’s management and apologized to those he “led astray.” However, he confirmed that the Ghost phone service, scheduled for launch on September 30, will proceed as planned, with a new cryptocurrency replacing the existing GHOST token for the ecosystem.
McAfee’s Break with Ghost
McAfee had been a central figure in building the Ghost ecosystem, which includes a privacy-centric cryptocurrency, an exchange, and a phone service. In his announcement, he blamed Switch CEO Josh Case for the project’s impending failure. “Josh controlled the project. He was killing it,” McAfee tweeted. “Josh is an idiot. I added Ghost to my Ghost ecosystem because I had his assurance that he would be 100% focused on Ghost. He never fulfilled that promise. I could no longer support a project managed by someone working on Clearpoll, Ethershare, etc.”
Private Message Reveals Deep Distrust
To illustrate why his hands were tied, McAfee posted a private message he allegedly sent to Case. The message read: “If you had told me, from the beginning, that making money for you, myself and everyone involved in Ghost was of no interest to you and you merely wanted to piss around with worthless projects, like Ethershare, from your past that never made you, nor anyone else a dime, then I would never have given you legal control over Ghost.” He added that Case’s inability to focus exclusively on the task had damaged his reputation, forcing him to seek an alternative coin for the ecosystem.
Ghost Team Responds: McAfee Was Never Operational
Later that day, the “Ghost by McAfee” team issued a clarification: “We will be dropping the ‘by John McAfee’ soon and will just be called Ghost. John is in no way involved in any day to day operations, nor has he ever been involved with any of the tech or building of Ghost.” The team stressed that the phone service launch remains unaffected. Meanwhile, the price of the Ghost cryptocurrency plummeted approximately 63% from its Wednesday high, trading at $0.266391 at the time of writing.
History of Ghost Crypto and Market Impact
The Ghost cryptocurrency launched in June 2020, following a May airdrop of Ghost tokens to holders of the Ethershare (ESH) token. The Bitcoin.com exchange had listed ESH prior to the airdrop. In early June, the Ghost team announced a partnership with Ivendpay, enabling 60 vending machines in Hong Kong to accept Ghost alongside BTC, ETH, BCH, and BNB. With McAfee’s departure and the sharp price decline, investors are questioning the project’s viability. McAfee himself remains optimistic about the privacy sector but has not yet named a replacement token.