According to media reports, Popescu was carried away by the current near the Tramonto Hotel when he went to swim. His body was found on the beach on the morning of June 23rd. A medical team arrived at the scene, but resuscitation measures did not bring results.
The local rescue service recalled that the area is not suitable for swimming. In the publication, Popescu is called a Pole, although in fact he is a native of Romania. The controversy may stem from the fact that he lived in several countries.
An early Bitcoin proponent and one of the largest cryptocurrency holders in the world, Mircea Popescu, died in Costa Rica. This was reported by local media outlets.
Remembering Popescu, members of the crypto community call him «the evil genius of bitcoin maximalism» and «the father of toxicity around bitcoin.» He was one of the most conservative proponents of Bitcoin and objected to any changes to the cryptocurrency protocol. In this regard, the following case is indicative.
In 2015, he offered $ 500 in bitcoin for the head of developer Peter Wülle, who advocated an automatic increase in bitcoin block sizes by 17% every four years. Popescu and his supporters actively fought to keep the bitcoin block size at 1 MB, which was subsequently done. They backed up their position by threatening to crash the market by selling a million bitcoins, which they claimed they had. Back in March of this year, Popescu reportedly said he had over a million BTC left.
Anonymous market maker and well-known member of the crypto community i.am.nomad writes:
“Mircea Popescu was one of those who I call“ sleeping giants ”. The guy had enough bitcoins to do whatever he wanted in life. He could at one moment collapse bitcoin to virtually zero and hold the price for some time. He evoked little sympathy, but laid the foundations of what we have today. «
Popescu also claimed responsibility for the hacking of the DAO autonomous investment fund, which led to the loss of 3.6 million ETH worth $ 50 million at that time, after which the Ethereum developers decided to hard fork to roll back the transaction history. In his own words, in this way he wanted to demonstrate the centralization of the Ethereum blockchain.
Some, given Popescu’s personality, believe that he exaggerated the amount of bitcoins at his disposal, and the real value could be between 50,000 and 300,000 BTC, which still made him one of the largest cryptocurrency holders in the world.
“A LOT of bitcoins have disappeared forever ,” writes Tuur Demeester, founder of Adamant Research.
Journalist Pete Rizzo quotes some of the most memorable quotes from the «Bitcoin cult leader»:
“Bitcoin is destiny. It functions entirely outside of any human education. Regardless of who Satoshi was … Bitcoin could just as well have created itself. Fate works quite simply: do the right thing and you will be a part of it. Do wrong and darkness awaits you. «
“Bitcoin does not exist for you to express your opinion about it. Bitcoin exists to fundamentally and often painfully change your life. Do you agree with this, do you give your permission, do you consider it “acceptable” or “necessary,” or whatever. Nobody asks you. «
“Bitcoin is a far-reaching innovation whose impact is unknown and unknowable. It is likely that his influence will be contrary to all currently accepted human traditions. «
“I love Bitcoin because I love freedom. It’s that simple. «
“They will say that Bitcoin“ interferes with democracy ”, that it is“ racist ”and the like. Bitcoin is banishing the big government and everything that the big government supports. By and large, everything is a thing of the past, and no one can do anything about it. «
“The only thing we can say for sure about Bitcoin regulation is that it will not be written in English and will not take into account the interests or feelings of the United States.”
“Bitcoin is not a community. Bitcoin is just math. «
