McAfee said income tax is illegal and plans to run from Cuba for the Libertarian Party nomination for US president.

“It would be trivial to get around the US government’s embargo through the use of a clever system of currency”, McAfee said.

“So I made a formal offer to help them for free... on a private channel through Twitter.”

Cuba had not responded, its Communist government said earlier this week it was studying the potential use of cryptocurrency to alleviate an economic crisis aggravated by tighter US sanctions. Countries under US sanctions such as Iran and Venezuela have floated the idea of using digital currency to trade although no scheme appears to have gotten off the ground.

“You can’t just create a coin and expect it to fly. You have to base it on the proper blockchain, have it structured such that it meets the specific needs of a country or economic situation”, said McAfee.

“There are probably less than ten people in the world who know how to do that, and I’m certainly one of them....”

McAfee said he did not pay income tax for eight years for “ideological reasons “and was indicted.

To avoid trial, he left the United States in January for the Bahamas. He arrived in Cuba a month ago after suspecting that US law enforcement was trying to extradite him from the Bahamas.

“With him on the yacht are his wife, four large dogs, two security guards and seven staff for his campaign ‘in exile’ for the Libertarian Party presidential nomination.”