The Peter McCormack Show

Location: San Francisco Date: Tuesday, 3rd September Project: balajis.com Role: Angel Investor & Entrepreneur A little over a year ago Coinbase announced the acquisition of Earn.com in a $120 million deal. Earn.com allows users to earn cryptocurrency by replying to emails or completing tasks. As a vital part of the acquisition, Balaji Srinivasan the CEO and Co-founder moved into the role of CTO at Coinbase where he oversaw the integration of Earn.com into the exchange and the launch of the controversial Coinbase Earn. This allowed users to earn several cryptocurrencies directly from the Coinbase website by merely answering a few questions to aid the education of the exchange users. After just a year as Coinbase CTO, Balaji has recently departed the company. It was a mixed year for Coinbase with reports of infighting with regards to the direction of the business. Still, they managed to raise $300m, at $7.7bn valuation, navigate a brutal bear market and build out an entirely new infrastructure to support multiple crypto assets. In Part 1 of this interview, Balaji and I take a deep dive into the world of virtual reality and gaming, the integration of AI into our daily lives, politics and state surveillance. These are not unfamiliar subjects for the podcast, but the questions and ideas Balaji raised undoubtedly were. Could migrant workers use virtual reality to work remotely without the need for a visa? Could your local coffee shop barista become a simulated 'non-player role'? Will humans one day emigrate not to a particular country but geographically, based on a belief system? Balaji Srinivasan joined me in San Francisco to discuss this and lots more. As well as: Solving San Francisco's drug and homeless problems Virtual worlds and AI VR remote working A geographical free market where the currency is your belief system Software CEO's becoming de-facto heads of state Separating money and state Is the U.S surveilling as much as or more than China

Location: New York Date: Thursday, 25th July Project: Byrne & Storm and Compound Finance Role: Partner & General Counsel Shortly after Facebook announced the launch of Libra, the U.S government hauled David Marcus, the head of the proposed currency, in front of Congress. For two days, Marcus answered tough questioning from both The House and The Senate on everything from Libra's intentions to Facebook's previous issues such as Cambridge Analytica. Quite predictably, the creation of a new global currency was seen as a threat to the Dollar and was met with hostility by large parts of Congress, but was this part of Facebook's plan? Are they using and audacious initial proposal as a way of shocking Congress before 'revisiting' the proposal and easing the regulatory path? Or, is Facebook using cryptocurrency and blockchain under the guise of 'innovation' as a shield against harsh regulation, well aware of the government's fear that China controlled WeChat and Alipay could weaken the position of the Dollar? Why is Facebook launching this project? With Facebook, active users dropping rapidly has the novelty of the social network worn off and is this just a pivot to stay relevant and maintain control? For the next episode in my Libra Deep Dive I talk to Preston Byrne & Jake Chervinsky about the regulatory side of Libra. We discuss whether Libra is a security, if the Foundation is really a non-profit and whether Libra is even a cryptocurrency.

Location: Skype Date: Sunday, 14th July Project: Casa & Independent Consultant Role: CTO & Applied Cryptography Consultant Libra promises to be the first distributed ledger to transition from a permissioned system to permissionless. However, it faces many significant technical challenges, many of which have yet to be solved by other cryptocurrencies. One of the main issues Libra faces is scalability. At launch, Libra is tipped to offer 1,000 transactions a second, but with a network of potentially billions of users, this will very quickly reach maximum capacity. Will Libra be able to solve its scaling issues? Will people care enough about Libra to want to use it? What happens when there are disagreements within the Libra foundation? In the second episode of the Libra series, I discuss these issues with Jameson Lopp and Peter Todd, as we take a deep dive into the technical side of Facebook's Libra.

Location: Palo Alto Date: Wednesday, 24th August Project: Abra Role: CEO & Founder Facebook announced in June that they would be launching Libra, with the mission of enabling a "simple global currency and financial infrastructure that empowers billions of people". Libra proposes a permissioned blockchain, meaning that unlike Bitcoin it isn't a decentralised project as control over the network is governed by the Libra Association. With these unique properties, Libra doesn't fit into the government-issued fiat financial model or the decentralised and trustless Bitcoin model instead. Libra is the dawn of a new type of money, the dawn of corporate money. Libra has not come without criticism, from central banks to governments to the cryptocurrency community and even the President of the United States, the announcement has ruffled feathers. Following two days of hearings in DC, where the head of Libra faced questions from Congress, there is still regulatory uncertainty regarding the currency. Other governments have also been pushing back, and there are rumours that some of Libra Association Founding Members are backing out. Will Libra even launch? If so, will it revolutionise money? To kick-off the What Bitcoin Did Libra series I am joined by Bill Barhydt, the CEO and Founder of Abra. We discuss why Facebook is launching Libra, why they didn't use Bitcoin and why Bill considers Libra as positive.

Location: Skype Date: Monday, 26th August Project: Casa Role: Product Manager Full nodes are fundamental to the security of the Bitcoin network by maintaining decentralisation and validating transactions and blocks by enforcing consensus rules. While running a full node is an act of supporting the Bitcoin network, it also ensures that you are not trusting any third party. If a transaction breaks consensus rules, then your node will reject it, irrespective of what others nodes do. Further, running a full node offers increased privacy and safety. So why do so few Bitcoiners run a full node? Many either do not understand the benefits of running a full node and/or find it intimidating. While there are many useful online guides, most rely on at least some technical ability and not everyone has the inclination, hardware requirements or technical knowledge. The difficulties mean many, understandably, opt to use a hardware wallet, lite wallet and even trust exchanges or custodial wallets to secure their Bitcoin. It is hard to put a number on the number of nodes in operation, but certainly, the total amount is a long way off Luke Dashjr's target of 85% adoption. How can more users be encouraged to run a full node? Casa is one company trying to help by solving some of the friction points around education, design and user experience. Casa offers an out of the box, plug-and-play Bitcoin and Lightning node. In this interview, I sit down with Brian Lockhart from Casa to talk about Bitcoin full nodes. We discuss why it is vital to the individual and for the Bitcoin community, and how Casa is working to make it easier for people to run a full node.

Location: Skype Date: Thursday, 22nd August Project: The Stephan Livera Podcast Role: Host The principles of Austrian Economics and Libertarianism have grown in awareness with the rise of Bitcoin. Where Austrian Economists have adopted Bitcoin as the hardest form of money, conversely, Bitcoiners have become aware of Austrian Economics as an alternative model for the economy. Bitcoin is the perfect monetary tool for proponents of both Austrian Economics and Libertarianism. The principles of a free market, removing central banks and taking power away from the state are inherent features of Bitcoin. These topics are hotly debated within the Bitcoin community but can also be difficult concepts for beginner's to understand. Many have only known a world of identity politics dominated by left and right-wing arguments, and a shift to a society without a state is mostly theoretical. It is useful to explore these subjects, to challenge not only the role of the state but its reach. Are socialist policies flawed? Are salaries caps and minimum wage policies ultimately harmful? Why do free markets outperform regulated markets? In this interview, I speak with my buddy and fellow podcaster Stephan Livera, to learn more about Austrian Economics and Libertarianism. Stephan explains why Bitcoin is the perfect tool for a free market and taking control away from the state.

Location: Skype Date: Tuesday, 20th July Project: Real Vision Group Role: Co-Founder & CEO "Chancellor on the brink of second bailout for banks" the Times headline on 3rd Jan 2009 and the now infamous words included in the Bitcoin Genesis Block. This was Satoshi Nakamoto's message to the world as the Bitcoin protocol launched. Many believe this was also a carefully chosen message to establish Bitcoin's role. The U.K.'s Chancellor of the Exchequer was about to bail out the U.K.'s failing banks for a second time. At the same time, Satoshi was releasing Bitcoin into the world as a way of controlling your own wealth, and bypassing the seemingly broken banking system. Now 10 years later, the world's economy is again in a fragile state with many economists predicting another global economic recession. Bitcoin is seen as the antithesis to traditional finance, and if the global economy does turn to a recession, people may seek solace in Bitcoin as a hedge against legacy markets. Raoul Pal is a leading macroeconomist who has worked for Goldman Sachs, managed hedge funds and advised to some of the largest funds in the world. He now runs Real Vision, a digital content platform with the aim of getting leading economist traders and hedge fund managers from across the globe to share their thoughts with everyone. Not just the select few. In this interview, we discuss the possibility of a global financial crash, how likely it is that Bitcoin will become a safe haven, Bitcoins volatility, Brexit, as well as: How to get people to care about Bitcoin The 2008 Global Financial Crisis Economic boom and bust cycles Bitcoins volatility being the sign of a free market How to protect our capital if there is another recession How the banking system will look in the future The threats from automation and AI How behavioural economics is changing the world

Location: Skype Date: Monday, 29th July Project: SatoshiPoint Role: Managing Director SatoshiPoint is the UK's largest Bitcoin ATM business, starting out in London in 2014 and initially struggling to find locations for the ATMs SatoshiPoint has since gone on to thrive and now operates in over 40 locations across the UK. With their ATM volumes now exceeding the peak Bitcoin volumes, seen during the 2017 bull run, Hassan Khoshtaghaza, the Managing Director is now looking at ways to grow his team and scale his business by adding locations throughout the UK and internationally. In this interview, we discuss the difficulties faced when trying to grow an ATM business, the regulation and security requirements and looking for new territory.

Location: Skype Date: Wednesday, 15th August Project: Frost Brown Todd LLC Role: Corporate Attorney Regulations are have always been in front of mind for the Bitcoin industry. Ever-increasing surveillance has accompanied the evolution of technology, primarily financial surveillance. Bitcoin is the first money owned by the people and is often seen as a threat to the state, as such the state has struggled to adapt to it. For businesses who operate in the industry, working with and understanding state regulations is non-negotiable. One company helping companies navigate this is Frost Brown Todd, one of the largest law firms in the Midwest United States. In this interview, I speak to Bill Repasky, a Corporate Attorney with the firm, to talk about the potential hurdles of operating a Bitcoin ATM business. We discuss the regulatory requirements of FinCEN, Money Transmitter Licenses, and how the current landscape lends itself to companies able to scale.

Location: Skype Date: Monday, 29th July Project: LibertyX Role: Co-Founder & CEO LibertyX launched the first Bitcoin ATM in the U.S. Starting out with a single machine at Boston's South Station they have grown to operate the largest network of Bitcoin ATMs, cashiers and kiosks. Unlike many other operators, LibertyX has spread its wings beyond ATMs, integrating their system with the traditional network of cashiers, ATMs and kiosks to build the largest network of in-person Bitcoin options. In this interview, I sit down with Chris Yim, LibertyX co-founder and CEO. We discuss launching the very first ATM in the US and the hurdles they had to overcome to grow the business, the benefits of an ATM over an exchange and making Bitcoin available on every block in the U.S.

Location: Skype Date: Sunday, 21st July Project: General Bytes Role: Owner Since the first Bitcoin ATMs started appearing in 2013, the market has grown at a significant rate, seemingly unaffected by Bitcoin's volatility. With a fast-paced market and strong competition, manufacturers have to keep up with a growing demand for machines and new feature requests. General Bytes has become the largest manufacturer of Bitcoin ATMs with over 1,700 machines in over 40 different countries (according to Coin ATM Radar). They are now faced with navigating the regulatory landscape and finding a business model that is sustainable in this new and emerging market. In this episode, I speak to Karel Kyovsky the owner of General Bytes. We discuss how they stay ahead of their competition, the challenges of implementing The Lightning Network, security and regulations.

Location: Chicago Date: Tuesday, 2nd July Project: Athena Bitcoin Role: Compliance Officer, CEO and Co-Founders The Bitcoin ATM market continues to grow, and according to a recent report by Coin ATM Radar there are now over 5,000 Bitcoin ATMs worldwide. While the vast majority are located in the United States, a growing number are appearing in countries where the general population may have less access to proper banking infrastructure and greater economic uncertainty. In these countries, Bitcoin ATMs offer an easy to use FIAT onramp which allows people to hedge against fragile economies and extreme inflation using Bitcoin. In this interview, I speak with Gil Valentine and Eric Gravengaard co-founders of Athena Bitcoin. Athena Bitcoin started out in Chicago but now operate across 8 US states as well as in Mexico, Columbia and Argentina. We discuss the challenges of growing a Bitcoin ATM business, operator fees and opening up to the South American market.

Location: New York Date: Friday, 26th July Project: Chaincode Labs Role: Bitcoin Engineer As an open source initiative, Bitcoin does not have a central fund to pay developers. Instead, it relies on a community of committed devs and a core group of companies and Bitcoin philanthropists to fund them. One of the companies leading the way in providing a platform for these developers is Chaincode Labs. Every year, Chaincode Labs runs a Hackers Residency which allows people from all around the world to come to New York, connect with developers and work on Bitcoin. In 2016, John Newbery quit his job in telecoms and took a spot on Chaincode Labs first residency. Following a successful four weeks, he was hired to work full time as a Bitcoin Developer at Chaincode. Since then John has dedicated his time to working on the Bitcoin Protocol, Lightning and building a community for Bitcoin developers by running the residency program for Chaincode. In this interview, John explains what it is like working on the Bitcoin protocol and with other core devs, the risks of a reducing block subsidy for miners, privacy and development on the Lightning network. Bonus: I also hear from 3 of the current residents on the Chaincode program. They tell me about their diverse backgrounds, how they ended up in New York, and what they will be working on once the residency is over.

Location: New York Date: Friday, 26th July Project: Tales from the Crypt & Rabbit Hole Recap Role: Founders/Presenters There are a handful of Bitcoiners who bleed orange, those with so much conviction it is hard to listen to them talk about Bitcoin and dismiss its importance. Matt Odell is one of those, and I have a little secret for you, Matt was the trigger for taking What Bitcoin Did full Bitcoin. Having wrestled with this for a while, I heard Matt on Stephan Livera's show discussing podcasts where he said he liked some of what I was doing. "Some". So Matt and I had a long chat about this, and it was a trigger for me to realise there is enough with Bitcoin to focus on. Matt previously came on the show with Neil Woodfine to discuss what we would like to see for Bitcoin in 2019. I have though been keen to have him back on for a while, so when I was in NY recently I hit him up, and he agreed to come on. Bonus: Matt's co-host and the founder of Tales from the Crypt, Marty Bent joined us for the first half of the show. Since starting in October 2017, Marty has interviewed some of the most exciting people in the space, including Matt Corallo, Caitlin Long, Dan Held and even Jack Dorsey and have built their reputation as one of the premier Bitcoin podcasts. It is also my go-to podcast on a long drive. We sat down over a glass or two of whiskey to discuss the podcasting industry and our favourite guests. We also look back at the community split during S2X and consider whether issuance and inflation could be the catalyst for a future contentious hard fork.

Location: San Fransisco Date: Monday 22nd July Company: Blockstream Role: Co-founder Pieter Wuille is one of the most influential, respected and prolific Bitcoin developers. While his career began at Google, the appeal of working on Bitcoin's open-source protocol was too tempting and led him to co-found Blockstream. Pieter has had a significant influence on the Bitcoin project and has the third most commits on the codebase. He has helped to implement some of the most significant changes to the protocol, including Segregated Witness, one of the most contentious hard forks in Bitcoin's history. As others debate the Bitcoin roadmap, Pieter has managed to remove himself from the infighting; instead, focusing his time on improving Bitcoin. As such, he's now working on implementing Taproot, Schnorr Signatures and MAST. In this interview, we hear how Pieter first heard about Bitcoin in 2010, entering the world of mining and selling thousands of Bitcoin for $0.20. I also find out what he thinks of Bitcoin in 2019 and what he argues is the threat to its future. Bonus: we also hear from a Blockstream intern at the end about his experience working at Blockstream and supporting Pieter in developing Bitcoin.

Location: San Diego Date: Tuesday, 16th July Company: Silvergate Bank Role: CEO Since Satoshi's left the message, "Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks" in the genesis block, Bitcoin has been the antithesis of banks. "Be your own bank", perhaps an overused phrase from Bitcoin proponents certainly comes under question for companies building Bitcoin-based businesses. Businesses need Fiat for operating costs: rent, wages etc. and for now, at least that is a gap that Bitcoin can't fill. Most banks have also looked at Bitcoin unfavourably, and crypto companies have struggled to find reliable banking partners. Many companies and exchanges have unexpectedly lost banking services or turned to creative solutions. Silvergate Bank, however, looks at Bitcoin and cryptocurrency differently. Since 2014 they have been building their reputation as the leading bank for cryptocurrency companies and now have over $1 billion in deposits. In this interview, I talk to Alan Lane, Silvergate's Chief Executive Officer and find out how they have been paving the way for cryptocurrency companies and are how they are offering banking services previously unheard of in the traditional industry.

During the previous bull run, the hype led to an influx of companies using Bitcoin or 'blockchain' to inflate value and attract investment. Many of these were questionable projects, and some were outright scams. Even legitimate companies struggled with the difficulty of creating value with Bitcoin, as companies failed two thrived: Casa and BlockFi. BlockFi is building financial products for Bitcoin holders which allow them to use their crypto as collateral for taking out a loan or lend out their Bitcoin to earn interest. Casa is improving security by simplifying multisig. So why have BlockFi and Casa been able to grow and thrive duing the bear market while so many others have failed? In this interview, I speak with Casa Founder Jeremy Welch and BlockFi Founder Zac Prince, we discuss Bitcoin utility, non-financial and sometimes unexpected applications and why Bitcoin is more than a financial system.

Exchange hacks have been a constant thorn in the side of the industry. Where a physical bank robbery of $millions will make headline news, a +$100m exchange hack will barely break out of the crypto news media. Exchange hacks are now so commonplace that a recent report from Ledger's CEO Eric Larcheveque found that the equivalent of $2.7 million a day was stolen from exchanges last year. Almost all major exchanges have experienced a hack of some kind, from Mt. Gox which could have destroyed the industry to Poloniex and Bitfinex, and more recently Binance and Cryptopia, the list goes on and on. As such, security is one of the biggest challenges faced by any exchange and there are very few that haven't suffered from a breach, one that has managed to remain unscathed is Kraken. With attacks becoming more sophisticated and hackers working 24/7 to find vulnerabilities how is that Kraken has managed to succeed where so many others failed? The man in charge of this roll at Kraken is Nick Percoco, their Chief Security Officer. In this interview we discuss: Ethical hacking Finding critical vulnerabilities in iOS Vulnerability brokers Kraken's company-wide security culture The difficulties in disclosing vulnerabilities Kraken Security Labs

There are a few places retail investors can currently trade a Bitcoin futures contract, but these tend to clouded in regulatory uncertainty and most are unavailable to US retail traders. That's about to change though as LedgerX have recently announced both the first regulated physically settled Bitcoin futures contract and the launch of a new trading platform called Omni which, for the first time, will give US retail investors access to regulated derivative markets. The physical settlement in Bitcoin is a big step forward for the ecosystem. It means that when a contract expires, the buyer will now receive Bitcoin as opposed to fiat, meaning businesses and miners can now bypass the fiat system entirely, hedging or betting in Bitcoin and settling in Bitcoin. This is just one of the implications the LedgerX's new contract.Will this lead to reduced volatility in the Bitcoin price and bring in more institutional investors? I visited LedgerX in New York and spoke with the Co-founder and COO Juthica Chou. We also discussed; Regulators being open to Bitcoin The licenses required to run a regulated exchange If the institutions are coming or if they are already here Working at Goldman Sachs during the 2008 financial crisis Betting on the Bitcoin halvening $20k, $25k and $50k contracts Bitcoin being better than gold Wall street's interest in Bitcoin Ledger X's competition

When landing in the world of Bitcoin there are many concepts down the rabbit hole to get lost in, from technology to economics there is a wealth of information available. Within the world of economics, many will discover the theory of Austrian economics for the first time. Those who believe in Austrian Economics believe in free markets, the gold standard and minimal government intervention. So where does Bitcoin fit into this? Could it be the perfect tool to facilitate a free market Could it even become an improved and new gold standard? To find out more, I sat down with Saifedean Ammous, author of The Bitcoin Standard and an Associate Professor in Economics at the Lebanese American University. Having recently launched his online academy it was a great time for Saifedean to teach me more about Austrian Economics and catch up on our mutual love for Liverpool FC. We discuss: Is Austrian Economics the only economic model that Bitcoin fits into? Is taxation theft? What makes a market a free market? What is money and is Bitcoin money? Will fractional reserve banking occur with Bitcoin? Will central banks adopt Bitcoin? Will improved monetary policy kill Bitcoin? Will Liverpool win the Premier League in '20?

Whenever you hear about Bitcoin in the mainstream media, undoubtedly one of the things that comes up time and time again is the power consumption needed to secure the network and which is the latest country Bitcoin has overtaken on power usage. Is this something Bitcoiners should be worried about and can the criticism be written off as a way for Bitcoin naysayers to ignore it for a little longer? Michel Rauchs recently released The Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index to address this issue and try and put Bitcoin's power consumption into perspective. We discussed: Whether Bitcoin needs to be inefficient to work? If holding Bitcoin is using Bitcoin What is Bitcoin's carbon footprint and is it a concern How much of the power used to mine Bitcoin is renewable? If Bitcoin were to reach $1,000,000 would mining use all the available power on earth?