John McAfee to Jamie Dimon: Bitcoin certainly not a fraud

The recent statement by Jamie Dimon about bitcoins being a fraud and a bubble that will eventually get someone killed has caused a great public resonance. Even John McAfee, a software expert, the creator of eponymous antivirus and a bitcoin miner himself, voiced his opinion. He said that although he respects Dimon, he absolutely does not agree with his position on cryptocurrency.

“It costs over $1,000 per coin to create a bitcoin. What does it cost to create a U.S. dollar? Which one is a fraud? Because it costs whatever the paper costs, but it costs me and other miners over $1,000 per coin. It's called proof of work,” told McAfee to the CNBC correspondent during the “Fast Money” program.

McAfee’s MGT Capital Investments company mines cryptocurrency and he told that mining needs vast amounts of computing power and electricity. While admitting that Bitcoin might fall later, he told that this cryptocurrency is not a fraud anyway: “And the fact that bitcoin is consistently growing in its use and its value has to say something," Mr McAfee said. “Sure it will rise and fall as all new technologies are. But at the same time, it is certainly not a fraud.”