The Peter McCormack Show

Location: Remotely Date: Wednesday, 30th December Company: Tales from the Crypt Role: Co-Host 2020 has been a defining year for Bitcoin, with the world reeling from a global pandemic, the necessity of hard money is more apparent than ever. With the worst of the bear market behind us, 2020 looked to be a promising year for Bitcoin. However, in March with the coronavirus outbreak, markets went into freefall and Bitcoin was no exception, dropping over 40% in a day and hitting yearly lows of ~$4,000. By the time of the halving on May 11th Bitcoin had recovered from this drop. With the increased scarcity and massive amounts of money printing, debasing fiat currencies and the increased threat of high inflation, institutional investors began moving into Bitcoin. With MicroStrategy, Square and MassMutual, amongst others, transferring part of their treasuries into Bitcoin. While institutional interest in Bitcoin dominated the headlines in 2020, Bitcoin continues to be a powerful tool for freedom, for those who live under oppressive regimes. Notably in Belarus, where government workers are striking in protest against the rigged elections. The Human Rights Foundation have supported them by setting up the Belarus Solidarity Fund. They are using Bitcoin as a censorship-resistant way of getting money to those striking to supplement their lost wages. To round off 2020, I talk to Matt Odell, co-host of Tales From the Crypt. We discuss everything in Bitcoin in 2020, from price action and institutional investment to government reaction to coronavirus and privacy.

Location: Remotely Date: Friday 18th December Company: lynalden.com Role: Macroeconomist 2020 has been a year unlike any, even before the coronavirus pandemic, the global economy was showing signs of stress. With the outbreak, the spread of the virus and subsequent lockdowns, governments worldwide resorted to unprecedented levels of monetary and fiscal stimulus to keep the flailing economy afloat. With the record levels of money printing and the ballooning money supply, many earmarked 2020 as the year that Bitcoin could prove itself. In the last few days, Bitcoin has hit all-time highs of around $24,000, but unlike 2017, it is not just retail investors that have flocked to Bitcoin. MicroStrategy has paved the way for institutional investors to own Bitcoin by not only converting $450m of their treasury to Bitcoin but raising an additional $650m by way of a convertible senior note sale to buy more Bitcoin. MicroStrategy, legendary macro investors Paul Tudor Jones and Stanley Druckenmiller have taken positions in Bitcoin, signalling a new era of Bitcoin investors. In this interview, I am joined by Lyn Alden, a macroeconomist and founder of Lyn Alden Investment Strategy. We discuss the coronavirus pandemic's impact, the increase in the broad money supply, high inflation and institutional investment in Bitcoin.

Location: Remotely Date: Tuesday 22nd December Company: Coin Center Role: Executive Director & Research Director Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury Secretary of the United States, is looking to implement a new regulation that would require financial institutions to verify the identity of both senders and recipients of any Bitcoin transaction, over $3000. A few weeks ago, Coinbase CEO, Brian Armstrong tweeted that Mnuchin was looking to 'rush out' new regulation before the end of President Trump's term in office. This regulation is not without opposition and Coin Center is addressing many concerns with the new rules and the method in which they are being passed. In this interview, I talk to Jerry Brito and Peter Van Valkenburgh, Coin Center Executive Director and Research Director. We discuss the implications of the new regulations, the key issues and what you can do to prevent them from passing.

Location: Remotely Date: Monday 21st December Company: Block Digest Role: Host 2020 has been a record-breaking year for Bitcoin where we have seen the price reach a new all-time high of over $24,000. Companies like MicroStrategy and Square have paved the way for institutional investors, and mainstream media covers Bitcoin more than ever. While interest in Bitcoin is continuing to grow, behind the scenes, Bitcoin developers are quietly continuing to push the technology forwards. With improvements like Schnorr signatures and CoinSwap on the horizon and advancements with discrete log contracts and Lightning Lab's Loop, the technical side of Bitcoin is also thriving. In this interview, I am joined by Shinobi host of Block Digest. We review the technical side of Bitcoin in 2020, including MuSig, Schnorr & Taproot, discrete log contract, Lightning Labs Loop and CoinSwap.

Location: Remotely Date: Monday 21st December Company: Ledger Role: CEO In July of this year, Ledger was made aware of a data breach on their website. Their initial statement read: "consisting mostly of email addresses, but with a subset including also contact and order details such as first and last name, postal address, email address and phone number." Since then customers have been subject to a range of phishing attempts with scammers sending fraudulent emails claiming that their "cryptocurrency assets are at risk", prompting them to download the latest version of Ledger Live. This fake version would then ask for the user's seed words. To make this data breach worse, what was initially reported by Ledger as 9,500 customers personal details (including physical addresses) was actually over 270,000. Yesterday both that list, along with over one million customer email addresses, was uploaded to RaidForums for anyone to download. Since the dump, there has been an increase in phishing attempts, including a new threat of physical attacks. In this interview, I talk to Ledger CEO, Pascal Gauthier. We discuss the data breach, their disclosure of the hack, how they communicated with those affected and their plans moving forwards.

Location: Remotely Date: Tuesday 15th December Company: Hypersheet Role: Co-Founder Bitcoin has had an incredible year. Following the outbreak of the coronavirus, the Bitcoin price crashed to just below $4,000. However, the subsequent government bailouts and money printing has led to many fearing fiat currencies will suffer from high inflation, highlighting the importance of hard money. Since the lows in March, Bitcoin has gone from strength to strength, particularly on the back of corporate interest. MicroStrategy and Square paved the way for corporations to buy Bitcoin, and others are following. Over the last couple of days, Bitcoin has rallied to new all-time highs, reaching close to $24,000, but what makes this time different to 2017? And how high could the price go in 2021? In this interview, I talk to on-chain analyst and the co-founder of Hypersheet; Willy Woo. We discuss the current state of the Bitcoin market, the catalysts for Bitcoin's rally and what to expect in the coming year.

Location: Remotely Date: Friday 11th December Company: The Rebel Capitalist Show Role: Host Bitcoin is a revolutionary thing that will potentially have a hugely positive impact on the world. Bitcoiners believe in its ability to change many aspects of the modern world by reducing the role of the state and leading to a more open and free society but this vision isn't shared by all. With memes like Bitcoin fixes this applied to everything from central banking to inequality and war, however, for those looking from the outside, does this behaviour look like a religion or cult? In this interview, I talk to George Gammon, an investor and YouTube host who is "bullish Bitcoin, bearish Bitcoiners". We discuss his Bitcoin thesis, where he thinks its strengths and weaknesses lie and his thoughts on the Bitcoin community.

Location: Remotely Date: Tuesday 1st December Role: Senator Wyoming's Cynthia Lummis is the first woman to represent Wyoming in the Senate, not only that; she is the first Bitcoiner ever to make it into the Senate. Cynthia describes herself as a "libertarian-leaning Republican". She plans to focus on reducing government debt as well as increasing the understanding of Bitcoin within the Senate. In this interview, we discuss how she became a Bitcoiner, her political goals, the understanding of Bitcoin within the government and the US debt and deficit.

Location: Remotely Date: Thursday 10th December Company: Swan Bitcoin Role: Head of Institutional Investment When MicroStrategy acquired $425 million of Bitcoin earlier this year, it sent a clear message to corporations everywhere, that Bitcoin is a valuable asset and can be a vital part of a company's treasury. With an asset as volatile as Bitcoin, this move wasn't without its risks, however, just a few months after piling into Bitcoin, that $425 million is now worth around $750 million. Now just a few months after first buying Bitcoin, company CEO, Micael Saylor is not happy with the company's 40,824 Bitcoin and now has plans to raise another $550 million to buy more. In this interview, I talk to Andy Edstrom, the Head of Institutional Investment at Swan Bitcoin. We discuss MicroStrategy's Bitcoin moonshot, ETFs, mass awareness & adoption and the race for corporations to own Bitcoin.

Location: Remotely Date: Monday 23rd November Company: VaynerX Role: CEO Gary Vaynerchuk is an entrepreneur, author, speaker, and Internet personality who has known about, and owned Bitcoin for a long time, but has yet to go down the Bitcoin rabbit hole. 2020 has highlighted the importance of Bitcoin. We have seen unprecedented monetary and fiscal stimulus as governments try and keep local economies afloat. In response, we have seen institutional investors taking note and corporations adding Bitcoin to their treasuries. The outlook is very bullish; however, the impact of all of this is difficult to comprehend. In this interview, I am joined by Gary, who asks the big questions; what happens if Bitcoin takes over and how will states react if Bitcoin becomes a threat.

Location: Remotely Date: Monday 16th November Company: Brink Role: Founder Bitcoin has a market capitalisation of over $300 billion, holding significant value for millions of investors. Yet we all rely on the developer community around the world to protect the network from bugs and attack. The importance of high-quality development and review is paramount to every bitcoiner. However, with no centralised developer fund or company, it can be challenging for developers to find funding. While there are a handful of companies who actively support Bitcoin development such as Chaincode Labs, Blockstream, Square Crypto, among others, opportunities as a full-time Bitcoin developer are limited. Recently, companies in the space have started dedicating funds to developers, including Coinbase and Gemini, recognising that the foundations of their businesses rely on this work too. John Newbery recently left Chaincode Labs to set up a Bitcoin research and development centre. With Brink, John aims to onboard and fund new Bitcoin developers. In this interview, I talk to John Newbery to discuss his decision to leave Chaincode Labs, funding for open source Bitcoin development, starting Brink and what he is working on developing.

Location: Remotely Date: Thursday 19th November Company: Kraken & ShapeShift Role: Founder/CEO & Head of Growth Altcoins almost always promise an improvement on Bitcoin, whether that is faster transactions or lower fees, enhanced privacy or some other killer use case. However, this is almost always marketing hype, with altcoins being a history of failure. For newcomers to Bitcoin, falling into the trap of investing in altcoins is easy. With the price of Bitcoin approaching all-time highs, we will undoubtedly soon see a wave of news coverage and an influx of newcomers to the space. So, should you avoid altcoins? Bitcoin Maximalists say yes, while many others say no. In this interview, I talk to Dan Held, the Director of Business Development at Kraken and Erik Voorhees, the founder and CEO of ShapeShift. Dan and Erik debate Bitcoin vs altcoins, DeFi, decentralisation and security.

Location: Remotely Date: Thursday 19th November Company: Swan Bitcoin Role: Director of Marketing 2020 has been a year like no other. With the outbreak of the coronavirus, large parts of the world went into lockdown in an attempt to contain its spread. The virus has been hugely politicised, and government responses have been polarising. Amid the outbreak, the death of George Floyd while in police custody sparked one of the most massive protests in history. What started as a peaceful protest escalated and caused looting and violence. Cities across America implemented curfews, and President Trump threatened to use the military to put an end to the unrest. Most recently, the US election has been marred by controversy. After initially falling behind in the race Joe Biden was declared the winner. However, Trump has so far refused to concede defeat and claims a fraud has been committed on the American people as he attempts to retain power. While the events of 2020 are unexpected, some predicted this unravelling of the world order. In 1996 Neil Howe and William Strauss released their book The Fourth Turning which suggests that every 80-90 years a crisis recurs known as the Fourth Turning. With the Great Depression in the '30s followed by the Second World War marking the previous crisis period, some think we may be witnessing the next one. In this interview, I talk to Brandon Quittem, a writer and advisor for Swan Bitcoin. We discuss the Fourth Turning, each 90-year cycle, individualism vs collectivism and the role that Bitcoin plays.

Location: Remotely Date: Wednesday 18th November Company: USC Marshall School of Business Role: Adjunct Professor of Finance After dropping to lows of ~$4000 when markets went into freefall following the coronavirus outbreak, Bitcoin has bounced back to a near to all-time high of ~$18,500. The impact of the pandemic on the economy has been a massive increase in government borrowing and money printing. This response has highlighted the importance of scarce assets which can't be debased. Gold has historically been the safe-haven asset that money flows into during times of uncertainty. However, many are now turning to Bitcoin, and it is quickly eating into gold's market share. In a world of fiat currencies, gold and the impending rise of central bank digital currencies, where does Bitcoin fit? Nik Bhatia has written Layered Money a book looking into this that will be released early in 2021. We discuss his book, where Bitcoin fits in the monetary system, the history of government control over money and central bank digital currencies.

Location: Squadcast Date: Thursday 12th November Company: Messari Crypto Role: Co-Founder With the Bitcoin pricing sitting at around $17.5K, up from $4k in March, Bitcoin has had an incredible year. With institutional investors starting to take note, unprecedented monetary and fiscal policy highlighting the importance of sound money and corporations adding Bitcoin to their treasuries, the outlook is very bullish. With such a rapidly evolving market, it is hard to keep track of everything that is happening. To help with this Dan McArdle has created CaseBitcoin; a website that compiles information and resources on the different value propositions of Bitcoin, its price history in comparison to critical markets & traditional assets and provides a library of some of the best articles and literature on Bitcoin. In this interview, I am joined by the creator of casebitcoin.com, Dan McArdle. We discuss the current bull market, comparisons to 2017, the current economic climate and how newcomers to Bitcoin can navigate the space.

Location: Squadcast Date: Wednesday 11th November Company: Pantera Capital & Galaxy Digital Role: Co-Founder, CEO & Founder, CEO 2020 has been a year, unlike any other. With the coronavirus pandemic bringing the world to a standstill, the global economy is under significant pressure. Governments have needed to take action, and we have seen unprecedented levels of fiscal and monetary stimulus. The current economic outlook highlights the bullish case for Bitcoin, and large institutions are beginning to take action. Microstrategy made the bold first move and put $425million of their treasury into Bitcoin. Michael Saylor's bold move sent a message to CEOs all over the world and shortly after Square followed suit with a $50million Bitcoin purchase. So how seriously are institutions taking Bitcoin? And will we see a wave of institutional investment? In this interview, I talk to veteran investors Dan Morehead, co-founder & CEO of Pantera Capital and Mike Novogratz, founder & CEO of Galaxy Digital. We discuss their first Bitcoin purchase, institutional interest & what they expect from Bitcoin in the coming years.

Location: Squadcast Date: Monday 9th November Project: No Agenda Podcast Role: Co-Host Adam Curry, along with Dave Winer are credited as the creators of podcasting in the early 2000s. The idea of allowing anyone to broadcast over the internet in an unfiltered and uncensored manner was revolutionary. For nearly two decades, podcasting has grown into an industry, which Business Insider predicts will be worth $1billion by 2021. With the meteoric rise in podcasting, some podcasts are attracting more followers than mainstream TV shows, for example, Joe Rogan regularly receives more than 10 million listeners per show. Advertisers wanting exposure to these audiences is the most common way to monetise podcasting. Adam Curry wants to move away from revenue driven by advertising which he believes is a form of censorship. Again Adam is attempting to revolutionise podcasting with Podcast Index that will, optionally, allow micropayments via Lightning Network to reward podcasters for their content. In this interview, I talk to the podfather Adam Curry. We discuss the origins of podcasting, COVID-19 & vaccinations, de-platforming & cancel culture and utilising the Lightning Network for podcast micropayments.

Location: Squadcast Date: Tuesday 3rd November Project: Amber Role: CEO The sound money properties of Bitcoin attract those interested in Austrian Economics and Libertarianism; in fact, Libertarians were one of the earliest groups of people to adopt Bitcoin and truly understand its importance and value. Since I've gone down the Bitcoin rabbit hole, Libertarianism has been something that I have paid close attention to on the show. The arguments for an anarchist society are compelling; however, one thing that I have always struggled with is how an anarchist society would work and how we would transition to this from a democratic society. In this interview, I talk to Aleks Svetski, a Libertarian who has written several articles outlining how he thinks an anarchist society would work. We discuss libertarianism, democratic v anarchist societies and the erosion of individual freedoms.

Location: Squadcast Date: Tuesday 3rd November In July, I tweeted that I would bet anyone $5,000 that Trump would lose the 2020 election. American Hodl took me up on the bet, and with the help of Phil Geiger we each deposited 0.5 BTC into a multisig. With the election this week, I caught up with American HODL three times, before, during and after the election to discuss everything that is happening. While Joe Biden went into the election as the clear favourite, according to the polls, it wasn't long before the narrative switched and by the early hours of election day UK time, Trump looked sure to win. The following morning, as the results of mail-in ballots hit the counts, the election swung back in favour of Biden. With Wisconsin and Michigan flipping democrat and Pennsylvania threatening to do the same, Biden looks like he may win the race to the Whitehouse. The election has not been without drama, with accusations from Donald Trump and his supporters of fraud. Now legal challenges are being submitted, and the path to a decision is unclear. In this interview, American HODL and I catch up before, during & after the US Election. We follow the ups and downs of election night, Trump threatening legal action in various states, demanding recounts and what happens between now and the inauguration.

Location: Squadcast Date: Thursday 29th October Company: Real Vision Role: Co-Founder & CEO The Bretton Woods agreement was created in 1944, following the end of the Second World War. The agreement pegged the US Dollar to gold, with other nations pegging their currencies to the dollar. The agreement was an attempt to stabilise economies after the devastation of the war. The IMF recently released an article in which they called the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic a "new Bretton Woods moment." Suggesting that the pandemic's effect on the economy and the substantial fiscal stimulus required may be too hard to come back from without change. The IMF announcement happened in the shadow of central banks around the world looking more and more at issuing their digital currencies. These Central Bank Digital Currencies, known as CBDCs, will give more power to the state over the control and flow of money. While this control does offer some benefits, they do also increase surveillance and reduce monetary freedoms. Are we in the midst of a revolution in money? And what does it mean for Bitcoin? In this interview, I am joined by Raoul Pal, macroeconomist and co-founder & CEO of Real Vision. We discuss the IMF considering a new Bretton Woods type system, central banks issuing digital currencies and what this means for Bitcoin.

Location: Squadcast Date: Wednesday 14th October Company: Prime Trust Role: Chief Product Officer Over the last few years, neobanks and fintech companies such as Cash App, Revolut, Venmo (amongst others) have grown hugely in popularity, with many choosing to step away from traditional banking and jump on this new wave in finance. Neobanks offer features that you cannot access in the traditional finance world. Along with quick and more effortless transactions, many services allow you to invest in stocks, commodities and Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies), from within their apps. So, what impact will exposing hundreds of millions of people to Bitcoin have? Prime Trust is one of the companies behind that help these fintech businesses operate, and in this interview, I talk to Kevin Lehtiniitty, their Chief Product Officer. We discuss financial censorship, the outdated legacy infrastructure in the US, neobanking and the role of bitcoin in the future of financial applications.

Location: Squadcast Date: Friday 25rd September Company: Blockstream Role: Lightning Network Developer Bitcoiners can be firm in their views and are often called toxic by outsiders; however, this toxicity plays an important role. Bitcoin is a threat to the legacy financial system. It is therefore open to a broad range of attacks from technical to social and Bitcoin's immune system defends against these attacks to protect the protocol. In previous episodes, I have looked at the pros and cons of toxicity and how it acts as an immune system for Bitcoiner. Does this immune system lead to silly narratives going unchallenged? Can Bitcoin fix everything or are we missing critical nuanced debates regarding its potential? Rusty Russell is somewhat of a contrarian in the Bitcoin space. He is a lightning network developer for Blockstream but also runs the Shit Bitcoiners Say Twitter account which regularly calls out some of the more overzealous and outlandish claims by Bitcoiners. In this interview, Rusty and I discuss the lightning network, open-source development, narratives and overzealous Bitcoiners.

Location: Squadcast Date: Tuesday 20th October Company: Gemini Role: Co-Founders In August, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss released The Case for $500K Bitcoin. A paper that outlines the value proposition of Bitcoin, why it is a superior store of value and hedge against inflation than either gold, oil and the US dollar. In the paper, they describe the world as 'drowning in debt', even before the coronavirus outbreak, and predict that the pandemic may cause everyone to come face to face with the reality of debt spiralling out of control. While the impact on the world may be scary for the broader economy, the twins outline Bitcoin as a major winner in this scenario and predict Bitcoin's market cap to grow from its current market capitalisation (approx. $225 billion) to that of gold (approx. $9 trillion). With the price of a Bitcoin at around $550K. We discuss their paper, why Bitcoin is the best hedge against inflation, the debt reckoning and Wall Street investing in Bitcoin.

Location: Squadcast Date: Thursday 17th September Role: Bitcoin Core Developer Due to the decentralised nature of Bitcoin, committing to becoming a full-time core developer comes with challenges. While the Bitcoin network is worth over $200 billion, there is no central development fund to ensure that developers are working full time on the protocol. While there are numerous independent contributors, many developers rely on support from a growing number of companies such as Chaincode Labs, Blockstream, Lightning Labs and a handful of others who fund work on the protocol. In this interview, I talk to Bitcoin Core Developer Amiti Uttarwar. We discuss her residency at Chaincode Labs, contributing to Bitcoin Core, working on open source projects and the blacklist controversy.

Location: Squadcast Date: Monday 7th September Company: Bitfinex Role: CTO Bitfinex is one of the oldest and largest Bitcoin exchanges. Since 2014, the exchange has had to endure multiple hacks, including at $60 million theft in 2016. iFinex, the parent company of Bitfinex, also oversees Tether. Tether is the largest stablecoin, regularly facilitating over $50 billion in daily trading volume and is supported by close to 150 exchanges. It too isn't without its controversies, there have been calls to audit Tether to prove that it is fully reserved and there are claims ether printing has been used to manipulate the markets. Despite the controversies, the Bitfinex and Tether teams have been instrumental in supporting the growth of Bitcoin. In this interview, I talk to Paolo Ardoino the CTO of Bitfinex. We discuss how Bitfinex dealt with the exchange hacks, protecting against future attacks, Tether, the Lightning Network and funding Bitcoin projects.

Location: Squadcast Date: Thursday 8th October Company: MicroStrategy Role: CEO In August, MicroStrategy made the bold move of purchasing 21,454 Bitcoin to add to their treasury, spending $250 million. In doing so, CEO Michael Saylor stated that he views Bitcoin as a "dependable store of value and an attractive investment asset with more long-term appreciation potential than holding cash". The next month MicroStrategy announced that they had doubled down on their conviction in Bitcoin and acquired an additional 16,796 Bitcoin, taking their total spend to $425 million. This move sent a clear message to businesses everywhere that Bitcoin is a valuable asset and can be a key part of a company's treasury. Following in the footsteps of Microstrategy, last week Square announced that they too had added Bitcoin to their treasury with the purchase of 4,709 Bitcoin for ~$50 million. In the second part of my interview with Michael Saylor, the CEO of Microstrategy, we discuss his Bitcoin value proposition, his view on maximalism and alts, privacy, decentralisation and the Bitcoin circular economy.

Location: Squadcast Date: Thursday 8th October Company: MicroStrategy Role: CEO In August, MicroStrategy made the bold move of purchasing 21,454 Bitcoin to add to their treasury, spending $250 million. In doing so, CEO Michael Saylor stated that he views Bitcoin as a "dependable store of value and an attractive investment asset with more long-term appreciation potential than holding cash". The next month MicroStrategy announced that they had doubled down on their conviction in Bitcoin and acquired an additional 16,796 Bitcoin, taking their total spend to $425 million. This move sent a clear message to businesses everywhere that Bitcoin is a valuable asset and can be a key part of a company's treasury. Following in the footsteps of Microstrategy, last week Square announced that they too had added Bitcoin to their treasury with the purchase of 4,709 Bitcoin for ~$50 million. In this interview, I talk to Michael Saylor, the CEO of Microstrategy. We discuss their Bitcoin purchase, where his conviction in Bitcoin came from, Square buying Bitcoin and the process of adding Bitcoin to a public companies treasury.

Location: Squadcast Date: Thursday 24th September Company: BHB Network & Blockstream Role: Director & Marketing Director Bitcoin can be a toxic place. Ask the wrong question or fall on the wrong side of an argument; the community can be vicious in its response. It is a daunting place with Bitcoiners not only clashing with altcoin projects but with each other regarding Bitcoin ideas too. Rarely a day passes without a fight of some kind exploding on Twitter. However, toxicity plays an important role. Bitcoin is a threat to the legacy financial system, and being decentralised; anyone can contribute. Bitcoin is therefore open to a broad range of attacks from technical to social and Bitcoin's immune system defends against these attacks to protect the protocol. Segwit2x highlighted how a group might choose to co opt Bitcoin with dangerous consequences. Radical scepticism is levelled against other projects, people and companies to ensure that no outside party can have a negative influence on the future of the best money we have ever had. So, what are the positives and negatives of toxicity in Bitcoin? When does toxicity cross the line and are there any unintended consequences? In this interview, I am joined by Bitcoin consultant and educator Giacomo Zucco and Neil Woodfine, Marketing Director for Blockstream. We discuss toxic Bitcoin maximalism, unintended consequences and politics within Bitcoin.

Location: Squadcast Date: Wednesday 30th September Company: Human Rights Foundation & BYSOL Role: Chief Strategy Officer Belarus is in the midst of massive protests, sparked in August by an election win for the long time leader of the country, Alexander Lukashenko. Lukashenko has been in power since the first presidential election in Belarus in 1994 when the country gained independence from the Soviet Union. The constitution following independence limited presidents to two terms but Lukashenko fought to change this and has remained in power since. Following the disputed election on August 9th hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets claiming Lukashenko rigged the election results. Opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya is claiming that she is the rightful president with reports that she had won 60-70% of the votes. These marches have become violent with Lukashenko's state security forces using rubber bullets, tear gas and extreme brutality against the protesters. Protestors are targeting state infrastructure by striking. To support those standing up to the regime, the Human Rights Foundation has set up a Belarus Solidarity Fund. They are using Bitcoin as a censorship-resistant way of getting money to those striking to supplement their lost wages. In this interview, I talk to Alex Gladstein the Chief Strategy Officer at The Human Rights Foundation and Jaraslau Likhachevski from BYSOL We discuss the political situation in Belarus, the protests and how Bitcoin is helping activists.

Location: Squadcast Date: Tuesday 22nd September Company: Unchained Capital, Parallax Digital & Senior Software Engineer Role: Head of Business Development, Founder & Peach If you ask 100 people what Bitcoin is, you will likely get 100 different answers. Whether it is a medium of exchange, gold 2.0, a hedge against inflation or purely as a speculative asset, all of these answers are valid. The decentralised nature of Bitcoin means that it has no owner and no single leader who decides what it is or how to use it. Bitcoin is an entirely personal experience based on the needs of the individual. As such, since its inception in 2009, Bitcoin has had many narratives. Championed initially as being a tool for digital commerce, with the advent of the Silk Road and other dark markets it's censorship-resistant property grew in popularity. More recently, Bitcoin is widely considered as gold 2.0 and a must-have asset to protect your wealth against inflation. With the absence of a central narrative, infighting is typical in Bitcoin, most notably in 2017 with the contentious Bitcoin Cash fork over what some believed the purpose that Bitcoin should serve. However, central to Bitcoin is its permissionless nature and therefore any Bitcoiner can choose to use it however they wish. In this interview, I am joined by Parker Lewis, Robert Breedlove and Vijay Boyapati to answer the question: what is Bitcoin? We discuss the use cases, what money is, institutional investors and the path to hyperbitcoinisation.

Location: Squadcast Date: Wednesday 23rd September Company: Ark Investment Management Role: Thematic Analyst Before the advent Bitcoin, financial systems operated based on trust. Central banks, government-issued fiat money and payment processors all rely on trusted third parties. Relying on trust-based systems leaves the user vulnerable to decisions that do not necessarily benefit them, from inflation of the money to supply to the censoring of transactions. Bitcoin changes this. With Bitcoin, there is a fixed supply and rigid monetary policy, and the rules of the system can't be changed at the whim of a small group of people. Add to this the ability to truly custody your wealth; it is clear to see why Bitcoin is so revolutionary. Not everyone has been quick to pick up on Bitcoin. Many institutional investors are still sceptical for many reasons, from the old defunct arguments that Bitcoin is for criminals and terrorists to concerns around price volatility. However, there are signs that institutions are beginning to shift their thinking, highlighted by MicroStrategy's recent decision to move $425 million of their treasury into Bitcoin. In this interview, I talk to Yassine Elmandjra, a Thematic Analyst at Ark Investment, who recently published two whitepapers on Bitcoin. We discuss trust-based v trust minimised systems, property rights and institutional investment in Bitcoin.

Location: Squadcast Date: Wednesday 23rd September Company: Kraken Financial & Kraken Role: CEO & Chief Legal Officer Last week Kraken announced that the Wyoming Banking Board had voted in favour of the exchange's application for a banking charter under Wyoming's Special Purpose Depository Institution statute. This charter makes Kraken the first cryptocurrency company to gain banking status. Receiving the banking charter opens traditional rails in the finance world that had previously been unavailable to the exchange, and in turn, will lead to the development of a range of innovative new banking services. In this interview, I talk to Kraken Financial CEO David Kinitsky and Kraken's Chief Legal Officer Marco Santori. We discuss the creation of a crypto bank, what it will mean to both the industry and Kraken customers and why they chose Wyoming.

Location: Squadcast Date: Monday 21st September Company: lynalden.com Role: Macroeconomist When COVID-19 struck, governments across the world implemented unprecedented stimulus packages to help what were already fragile economies, which had never fully recovered from the 2008 global financial crisis. While the economy moves in short-term 5-10 year cycles, a larger multi-decade cycle appears to be coming to an end. As governments pursue further rounds of quantitive easing, debt to GDP levels are heading towards what Lyn calls the event horizon, where debt to GDP is over 130% and currency devaluation is the most likely outcome. Holding cash through a currency devaluation risks losing purchasing power as governments increase the money supply to service debt, thus scarce assets such as gold and Bitcoin are a safe haven. In this interview, I talk to Lyn Alden, a macroeconomist and founder of Lyn Alden Investment Strategy. We discuss the current state of the economy, monetary and fiscal policy debt cycles and if we should expect currency devaluation.

Location: Squadcast Date: Wednesday 9th September Company: FFTT, LLC Role: Founder In 1971 Nixon announced that the US would sever all ties between the dollar and gold and would no longer convert dollars to gold at a fixed value of $35/oz, putting an end to any remnants of a gold standard and ushering in a new era in finance. This new system led to decades of excessive risk-taking, cheap credit and questionable incentive structures. In 2008, the new system came crashing down when the US housing bubble burst and in turn, sent the entire world into the worst financial crisis since the great depression. To manage the economic crash, central banks pushed quantitative easing to stimulate the economy, but now, 12 years later, the world's economy is again teetering on the edge. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the fragility of the global economy. With decades of currency debasement, investors are turning to scarce assets such as gold and Bitcoin to hedge the risk of inflation. In this interview, I talk to macroeconomist and founder of FFTT, LLC Luke Gromen. We discuss the current macroeconomic climate, how the system that has been in place for the last 50 years is coming to an end and why we need Bitcoin.

Location: Squadcast Date: Wednesday 19th August Company: Casa Role: CEO & CTO One of the earliest lessons for a new Bitcoiner is the security of your Bitcoin. If you lose your private keys or someone hacks you, it is almost certain you will never see that bitcoin again. Protecting your private keys is one of the first concepts for anyone holding Bitcoin to master. It is the basic building block for becoming self-sovereign, separating your wealth from the legacy financial system. There is no one way to secure your private keys, and bitcoin holders have a wealth of options available to them, but building a robust security solution which protects you against every possible scenario requires planning. Casa is a company that specialises in security and offers multisig solutions that help robustly secure your bitcoin while retaining custody. In this interview, I talk to Nick Neuman and Jameson Lopp, Casa CEO and CTO. We discuss how to secure your Bitcoin, the types of attacks that you need to be aware of and Casa's multisig solutions.

On 24th & 25th September The Human Rights Foundation hold their annual Oslo Freedom Forum. With COVID this event will be virtual for the first time ever. To register for the event and find out more go to https://oslofreedomforum.com/.

Location: Squadcast Date: Thursday 3rd September Company: aantonop.com Role: Speaker, Author & Educator Some of the most vocal people in the Bitcoin community are highly technical, anarcho-capitalist libertarians, drawn to Bitcoin for its sound money properties. Some have a vision that Bitcoin will change many aspects of the modern world by reducing the role of the state and leading to a more open and free society, but is this vision shared by all? While it has been essential to protect the Bitcoin protocol from attacks by nefarious parties, has this immune system evolved into ideas beyond Bitcoin which become counter-productive to Bitcoin adoption? In a space with more than its fair share of scams and people with questionable intentions, some people play an important role in calling these out and protecting investors. However, some Bitcoiners hold others to a very high standard on other political and ideological issues which can create an intimidating environment. Is Bitcoin an apolitical tool for the censorship-resistant transfer of wealth, or is it a weapon for a political revolution? Recently, I asked the question on Twitter "What is an xPub"? As someone who is not very technical, this seemed to be a reasonable question, however, I received a lot of backlash from the more technical Bitcoiners. Are there a set of core principles that Bitcoiners should hold and if so, how are these defined, or are these principles just representative of one sub-community within Bitcoin? In this interview, I talk to Bitcoin Speaker, Author & Educator; Andreas M. Antonopoulos. We discuss toxicity in the Bitcoin community, the steps to better Bitcoin privacy and what an xPub is.

Location: Squadcast Date: Thursday 3rd September Company: Blockstream, MIT Digital Currency Initiative, Ethereum, PISA Research Role: Director of Research, Research Scientist, Founder, Co-founder & CEO In my recent Bitcoin Vs Ethereum show, I was joined by Samson Mow and Vitalik Buterin to discuss the philosophical differences between Bitcoin and Ethereum. For me, the fundamental differences between the two are quite clear, where Bitcoin is conservative and slow, focusing on sound monetary policy, Ethereum is inflationary, experimental and has, what many consider unachievable goals. Following the debate about the philosophical differences I was keen to expand the conversation into the technical differences between the two networks. In this episode, I am joined by Andrew Poelstra, Tadge Dryja and Vitalik Buterin and Patrick McCorry. With Paddy as co-host, we discuss the fundamental and technical differences between Bitcoin and Ethereum, scalability and use cases.

Location: Squadcast Date: Wednesday 2nd September Company: Independent Trader, Entrepreneur & Author, The Investors Podcast Role: Bitcoin Quant Analyst, Independent & Host When Plan released his revised Stock-to-Flow model as a Cross Asset Model (S2FX), he added a new concept: phase transitions. This revision to the model takes into consideration the evolution of Bitcoin's use and meaning, as such, from proof of concept to payments to e-gold to a financial asset. Following the halving in May, many have speculated what the next transitional phase would be for Bitcoin, with the model predicting the price of Bitcoin potentially reaching $288K. With Bitcoin being a provably scarce asset, in times of unprecedented money printing and fiat currency debasement, the bull case for Bitcoin is clear. However, in August, MicroStrategy sent a clear message to businesses everywhere, when in August they announced their purchase of 21,454 Bitcoin, over 1% of the total supply. MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor said that they view Bitcoin as a "dependable store of value and an attractive investment asset with more long-term appreciation potential than holding cash". Other companies have started following MicroStrategy by holding Bitcoin within their treasury. Could companies holding Bitcoin to protect their cash reserves be the next phased transition for Bitcoin? In this interview, I talk to Bitcoin quant analyst & creator of the stock to flow model, Plan₿, author of The Price of Tomorrow Jeff Booth & author, engineer & the host of The Investor Podcast, Preston Pysh. We discuss how Bitcoin S2F is entering phase 5.

Location: Squadcast Date: Monday 31st August Company: INX, Casa, Blockstream Role: Executive Managing Director, CTO, Chief Strategy Officer Last week INX launched their token offering, a first of its kind, a security token approved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. INX is a trading platform bringing regulated and digital asset opportunities to institutions and retail investors. Their token offering allows investors to gain pro rata distributions from the companies cumulative adjusted operating cash flow. Controversially the token was launched on the Ethereum blockchain. The project already has its detractors and critics, with the advisory board catching direct criticism with accusations of hypocrisy, specifically Jameson Lopp and Samson Mow. While many Bitcoiners have expressed their opinions against the project, others have thrown their support behind it, believing that INX is a legitimate use of a token. In this interview, I talk to Alan Silbert, Jameson Lopp and Samson Mow about the launch of INX. We discuss why they chose to tokenise on Ethereum, what makes something a shitcoin and the key criticisms directed towards them.

Location: Squadcast Date: Monday 24th Aug Company: Independent Role: Developer and Consultant, Bitcoin Activist A deep divide exists between the Bitcoin and Ethereum communities. Bitcoin is conservative and slow and appeals to people who value sound money, censorship resistance and decentralisation. The Ethereum mindset is to "move fast and break things" with broader goals that many Bitcoiners see as flawed and impossible to achieve. Following my recent episode with Samson Mow and Vitalik Buterin, the responses demonstrated the split in these two communities. Finding impartial voices able to consider the arguments from both camps objectively is challenging, so I asked Udi Wertheimer to come on the show and dissect the interview with me. We discuss the Bitcoin Maximalist mindset, flaws with the Ethereum protocol and the supplygate saga.

Location: Squadcast Date: Wednesday 5th August Company: N/A Role: N/A Throughout 2019 and early 2020, the global economy was signalling fragility. However, with the rapid spread of COVID19 and the resulting lockdowns, the global economy is heading into a deep recession. As governments have worked to control the virus, economies are opening back up. Across the world, governments are facing the challenge of stimulating these faltering economies while managing localised lockdowns. The Fed announced a new effort to support the economy, including programmes for small and medium-sized businesses, via Main Street lending, however, banks are still, seemingly, reluctant to offer loans. In this interview, I talk to anonymous Twitter account FEDUPBIZOWNER. We discuss COVID's impact on the lending markets if the banks are facing an insolvency crisis, why stock markets are hitting all-time highs and hedging with gold and Bitcoin.

Location: Squadcast Date: Wednesday 12th August Company: Wasabi Wallet Role: Contributor Many newcomers to Bitcoin mistakenly think of it as private, but the truth is far more complicated than that. While it is possible to use Bitcoin with a high level of privacy, it has been complicated by the growth in regulations. Exchanges must enforce KYC in most jurisdictions to allow them to retain their banking services, while chain analysis is increasingly used to flag transactions deemed illicit. While privately utilising Bitcoin is becoming harder, there are many tools available for Bitcoiners to reclaim their privacy. One of them is Wasabi wallet, best known for CoinJoin, a method which allows users to increase their Bitcoin anonymity. In this interview, I talk to Wasabi wallet contributor Max Hillebrand. We discuss remaining anonymous while using Bitcoin, Wasabi wallet & CoinJoin, custodian solutions and living a Bitcoin-only life.

Location: Squadcast Date: Wednesday 12th August Company: The Cryptoconomy & WTFhappenedin1971.com Role: Host & Creators Modern Monetary Theory is a relatively new school of economic thought. MMT suggests that if governments carefully control inflation, then they should not be concerned with increasing levels of debt. The views of MMT proponents is in stark contrast to the views held by most Bitcoiners who often favour Austrian economics, which Bitcoin's monetary policy and fixed supply align closely. Following my recent interview, with Stephanie Kelton, who put forward what she sees as the benefits to MMT, I wanted to follow up with a panel of Austrian economics proponents to look at the potential flaws in this system. In this episode, I talk to fellow podcaster Guy Swann, as well as Ben Prentice and Collin, creators of WTFhappenedin1971.com. We discuss Modern Monetary Theory, Austrian economics, and MicroStrategy buying Bitcoin.

Location: Squadcast Date: Thursday 13th August Company: Blockstream & Ethereum Role: Chief Strategy Officer & Founder The Bitcoin community can be a very hostile place, in an industry that has more than its fair share of scams and questionable projects it often falls at the feet of Bitcoiners to call them out. In many ways, Ethereum is the antithesis of Bitcoin. Whereas Bitcoin is slow and conservative in its goals and development, the ethos of Ethereum is to 'move fast and break things'. These philosophical differences often lead to fiery debates between the two communities. Over the past few days, a new debate was sparked by the seeming inability to verify the total supply of Ethereum. Supplygate has divided the two communities again with many Bitcoiners believing that the ability to audit the supply should be one of the fundamental principles of a money system. With Bitcoin, it is the monetary policy which gives it value over fiat, therefore having a fixed supply and the ability for anyone to run a node and audit the supply is critical. Believers in Ethereum argue that Ethereum's value proposition is different and that difficulty of getting consensus around the total supply is not a significant issue. During this debate Chief Strategy Officer at Blockstream, Samson Mow, and Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin traded blows on Twitter. I asked them to come on the show and discuss the philosophical differences between Ethereum vs Bitcoin.

Location: Zoom Date: Wednesday 5th July Company: Blockstream, BHB Network, Zap & Strike, Tales from the Crypt & Rabbit Hole Recap, Castle Island Ventures Role: Director of Research, Director, Founder, Co-Host, Partner For my 250th show special, I asked some of my favourite Bitcoiners to join me for a panel discussion. In this episode, Andrew Poelstra, Giacomo Zucco, Jack Mallers, Matt Odell, Nic Carter and myself discuss all things Bitcoin.

Over the last three years, I have had a huge array of guests from cypherpunks, developers, economists, libertarians, activists, Wall Street veterans and punk rock legends all with one thing in common; Bitcoin. In this episode, to celebrate What Bitcoin Did's 250th show, I asked some of my previous guests to tell me one thing about Bitcoin, that matters to them.

Location: Zoom Date: Wednesday 5th July Project: The Yaron Brook Show Role: Host Ayn Rand was a Russian-American philosopher and author who developed a philosophical system known as Objectivism. Objectivism has many similarities with Libertarianism, both believe in non-aggression as well as capitalism via a genuinely free market; however, the critical area they differ on is the role of a central government. While many libertarians believe anarchy is the only way of overcoming government overreach, objectivists believe in a limited government. In this interview, I talk to Yaron Brook, host of the Yaron Brook Show and Chairman of the Ayn Rand Institute. We discuss the differences between libertarianism and objectivism, how an Objectivist society would work and Bitcoin.

Location: Zoom Date: Monday 27th July Company: Start9 Labs Role: CEO/Co-Founder & Co-Founder/Head of Engineering The birth of the internet caused one of the most significant cultural shifts in human history. Global communication and information sharing has allowed for considerable advancements in society, and it is integral to the world we live in today. However, it is not all positive; the internet sucks up vast amounts of personal data which is then sold and exploited. There are many ways your data is used against you from targeted advertising to voter manipulation, and Tim Berners Lee, the creator of the internet, cited the loss of control of our personal data as one of his biggest concerns regarding the current state of the internet. By utilising encryption tools and browsers like Tor, you can still retain your privacy while using the internet, but it is not straight forward. Start9 are changing this. In this interview, I talk to Matt and Aaron from Start9. We discuss the growing demand for a private internet, retaining control of personal data, encryption and why bitcoin is fundamental to all of this.

Location: Zoom Date: Sunday 2nd August Company: The Pomp Podcast Role: Host The benefits of holding a scarce asset have never been more apparent. All over the world, central banks have been printing money at an unprecedented rate to attempt to stimulate faltering economies. With the outbreak of coronavirus and subsequent lockdowns in March, the majority of markets crashed. Bitcoin was no different, hitting local lows of ~$4,000. Since then Bitcoin has rallied and is currently sitting at ~$11,000. The price action and current economic conditions have led many to believe we are at the beginning of a bull market like the one we saw in 2016/2017. In this interview, I talk to Anthony Pompliano, founder and partner at Morgan Creek Capital and the host of the Pomp podcast. We discuss his recent interview with Roger Ver, the economic impact of the coronavirus & the Bitcoin bull market.