An estimated $2 billion bitcoin fortune has been left behind by the untimely death of a contentious investor. Local reports state that 41-year-old Mircea Popescu perished off the coast of Costa Rica. What will happen to his cryptocurrency money has become the focus of online conjecture. Although he founded the "bitcoin securities exchange" MPEx in 2012, Popescu was an early adopter of the cryptocurrency and is sometimes referred to as "the father of bitcoin toxicity." Although he was a prolific blogger, many of his technical arguments supporting and defending bitcoin and its technological foundations were compromised by his use of nasty language. "Fate is Bitcoin." It functions entirely independently of human agency.

In one piece, he stated, "For all you know about [bitcoin creator Satoshi] Nakamoto, bitcoin might as well have created itself." "Your friends and everyone you hold in high regard could be killed by Bitcoin... It can rape your pets and poop in your drink. Whether you experience the most intense hatred imaginable or a nice, fuzzy kind of love, it makes no difference if lightning hits where you are sitting—electricity remains. Popescu, according to former CoinDesk editor-in-chief Pete Rizzo, was similarly hostile to other well-known personalities in the early days of the bitcoin movement. "Mircea will endure as one of bitcoin's most vilified figures and inarguably one of its greatest philosophers," Mr. Rizzo tweeted after learning of his passing.