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The Peter McCormack Show — Business
The Peter McCormack Show

The Peter McCormack Show – politics, macro, Bitcoin and AI, long-form interviews. Twice-weekly conversations about money, power, and the shifts reshaping the next decade.

Peter McCormack interviews politicians, economists, investors, journalists, founders and Bitcoiners. Past guests include Liz Truss, Lyn Alden, Curtis Yarvin, Matt Goodwin, Mike Green, Balaji Srinivasan, Rupert Lowe, Firas Modad, Scott Horton, Jeff Booth, Connor Leahy, Andrea Miotti, Neema Parvini, Dr Tim Gregory and Simon Dixon.

Recurring threads: the debt and inflation endgame, UK political collapse and what comes after, Reform and the populist wave, the Middle East and the American war machine, AI safety and the race for superintelligence, energy and net zero, Bitcoin adoption and policy, and the slow-motion decline of Western institutions.

Long-form – most episodes run 60 to 120 minutes. New episodes 2 to 3 times per week. Video on YouTube and Spotify.

Host: Peter McCormack, a retired rapper from Bedford, UK, trying to understand this crazy world.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Latest Episodes:

Hidden Danger in the Infrastructure Bill with Abraham Sutherland & Greg Xethalis - WBD408 Oct 11, 2021

Show notes

Location: Austin, TX Date: Friday 8th October Company: Independent, Multicoin Capital Role: Independent, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer

In August, a bipartisan group of 69 senators passed a $1 trillion infrastructure package, including around $550 billion projected federal spending on roads, bridges, expanded broadband access and more.

While this may seem irrelevant to Bitcoin, this 2000+ page document outlined how the government plans to fund the bill. Under the 'Other Provisions' section, the bill focused on the reporting requirement for "brokers" of digital assets and their definition. These reporting requirements are designed to extract a tax from users who misreport or underreport their taxes.

This bill section caused a considerable backlash from bitcoiners as the proposed language is extensive and seems almost impossible to comply with.

While bitcoiners were up in arms about the broker definition, lawyer Abe Sutherland says that the bill contains an overlooked "digital assets" provision that could become a far bigger issue, affecting almost every bitcoin user if it becomes law.

In this interview, I talk to independent lawyer Abe Sutherland and Greg Xethalis, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Multicoin Capital, to discuss the onerous new reporting requirements hidden within the Infrastructure Bill.

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WBD: Live in Nashville with Preston Pysh & Marty Bent - WBD407 Oct 08, 2021

Show notes

Location: Nashville, TN Date: Thursday 30th September Company/project: The Investors Podcast & Great American Mining & TFTC Role: Host & Director of Business Development & Host

2021 has been a year of significant disruption. Trillions in deficit spending are ongoing. Many countries are experiencing the highest consumer inflation seen in decades, while assets and commodities prices have soared at a phenomenal rate.

Meanwhile, China kicked half of Bitcoin's hashrate offline by instituting a country-wide ban on mining. However, the Bitcoin network has demonstrated its antifragility as thousands of ASIC machines migrate to other countries and come back online.

While many Bitcoin naysayers have lambasted the energy use of Bitcoin's mining industry as being environmentally unfriendly, mining is driving more efficient use of low-cost, renewable, and otherwise wasted energy sources.

In a world that is full of distortions, is Bitcoin the answer to society's problems?

In this live interview, I talk to Preston Pysh, the host of The Investor Podcast, and Marty Bent from Tales From the Crypt and Great American Mining. We discuss rising inflation, why bitcoin mining is good for global energy use, and why bitcoin is this answer to many problems.

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Bitcoin & the Financial Transformation with Greg Carson - WBD406 Oct 06, 2021

Show notes

Location: New York Date: Monday 20th September Company: XBTO Humla Ventures Role: Managing Partner

For millennia, technology has shaped society, and sometimes in giant leaps. Whether it's the invention of gunpowder or connecting our world with the internet, the result is civilisational transformation.

Today, Bitcoin is still a nascent technology, yet it may already be a revolution of value in the digital age. Multiple industries that comprise tens of trillions of dollars may be on the precipice of massive disruption.

So how will this financial transformation play out?

In this interview, I talk to Greg Carson, a Managing Partner at XBTO Humla Ventures. We discuss how technology can reshape society, $20 trillion market disruptions, and Bitcoin's inevitable design.

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The Bitcoin v Crypto War with Udi Wertheimer, Crypto Cobain, Alex Gladstein & Allen Farrington - WBD405 Oct 04, 2021

Show notes

Location: Remotely Date: Wednesday 29th September Company/project: Independent, Independent, Human Rights Foundation & Baillie Gifford Role: N/A, N/A, Chief Strategy Officer & Investment Manager

The narrative around altcoins is constantly changing. However, one thing that remains consistent is that they almost always promise to 'improve upon Bitcoin' in one way or another. More often than not, this is improved layer one scalability, lower transaction costs or enhanced programmability.

While many of these projects can offer faster and cheaper throughput and smart contracts, they come at the cost of the most fundamentally important aspects of Bitcoin; security, decentralisation and censorship resistance.

Bitcoin maximalists often cite these reasons as to why all projects outside of Bitcoin are doomed to fail, but the market seems to think differently. Over short time frames, many of these altcoins can outperform Bitcoin and the opportunity to make quick gains draws in large amounts of retail investment regardless of premines, lack of product-market fit or whether a project is, in fact, meaningfully decentralised or not.

Bitcoin is designed to be the hardest money the world has ever known and to demonetise the state. To achieve this, it moves slowly, protecting its core principles at all costs. In stark contrast to this, Altcoins operate on a model similar to Silicon Valley, move fast and break things.

With growing concerns over a state-level regulatory crackdown on 'crypto', decentralisation is paramount. Bitcoin's decentralisation means it can survive almost any attack, but could altcoins survive without being meaningfully decentralised?

In this interview, I talk to Allen Farrington, Crypto Cobain, Udi Wertheimer, and Alex Gladstein. We discuss tokens and securities, scalability vs decentralisation, nation-state resistance, and building on Bitcoin.

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The Failure of Ethereum Governance with Lane Rettig - WBD404 Oct 01, 2021

Show notes

Location: New York Date: Sunday 19th September Project: Ethereum Role: Core Developer

Ethereum was created to build upon Bitcoin's innovations and offer more functionality, and in 2015, Ethereum developers launched an ICO selling millions of ETH tokens, at the time worth over $18 million.

Some of those funds, now worth nearly $1 billion, went to the Ethereum Foundation, which oversees the ongoing development and promotion of the Ethereum project. The foundation is a central entity that issues grants for relevant projects and employs core developers to work on the protocol.

While the Ethereum ecosystem is thriving, questions remain about the technical roadmap, scalability, decentralisation of the network, and governance of the project itself.

From changes in supply schedule and frequent hard forks, Ethereum governance is in stark contrast to the conservative, slow-moving and consistent nature of Bitcoin.

So will the Ethereum project overcome the hurdles that lie ahead? Or is it doomed to fail?

In this interview, I talk to Ethereum Core Developer Lane Rettig. We discuss the Ethereum foundation, why Lane quit, ethics, hypocrisy, decentralisation vs scalability, and building better institutions.

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Is the Cycle Going to Break? With Willy Woo - WBD403 Sep 28, 2021

Show notes

Location: Remotely Date: Thursday 23rd September Company: Hypersheet Role: Co-Founder

Bitcoin's controlled supply schedule and the four-year halving has, historically, led to predictable and cyclical price action with huge bull runs and brutal bear markets.

Throughout the 2020/2021 bull market, people have been trying to predict bitcoin's price by comparing it to the 2013 'double pump' and 2017's parabolic top. However, this time the market is different.

With large corporations now acquiring Bitcoin for their treasuries, a nation-state adopting Bitcoin as legal tender and an ETF, in the United States, likely just around the corner, could it be the end of the four-year cycle?

In this interview, I talk to an on-chain analyst and the co-founder of Hypersheet, Willy Woo. We discuss whether Bitcoin is maturing, platforms vs protocols, decentralisation, and freedom.

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Credit Risk & The Bitcoin Hedge with Greg Foss & Andy Edstrom - WBD402 Sep 26, 2021

Show notes

Location: Remotely Date: Thursday 23rd September Company: Validus Power Corp, Swan Bitcoin Role: Bitcoin Strategist, Head of Institutional Investment

Over the last week, markets worldwide were hit hard as fears continue to grow over the liquidity of Chinese property behemoth Evergrande. The S&P, Dow Jones and Nasdaq all suffered their worst days in months.

Evergrande is China's second-largest and the world's most indebted real estate developer. It expanded rapidly by borrowing more than $300 billion. however, when new rules were introduced to control the amount owed by big large estate developers, Evergrande was forced to sell properties at a significant discount and is now struggling to pay its debts.

In 2008, the Great Financial Crisis began with an insolvent institution which precipitated a credit panic across the global banking system. When markets are saturated with debt, a single event can turn into a contagion.

Will Evergrande spark another financial meltdown, or will it prove to be too big to fail?

In this interview, I talk to the Head of Institutional Investment at Swan Bitcoin and Bitcoin Strategist Greg Foss. We discuss the Evergrande insolvency, whether a debt crisis is looming, and why Bitcoin is the perfect hedge.

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Twitter Integrates Bitcoin with Jack Mallers - WBD401 Sep 24, 2021

Show notes

SHOW DESCRIPTION

Location: Remotely Date: Thursday 23rd September Company: Strike Role: CEO

For the past few decades, fintech companies have launched many proprietary payment systems for digital payments, leading to competing standards that have left markets disconnected and bifurcated.

Bitcoin is a new open monetary system, and the Lightning Network introduces instant cash-like digital finality. Any platform or company can now plug into a global interoperable financial network that operates at the speed of light.

Twitter has become the first social network to integrate Bitcoin as its native currency. So what will this mean for social media and content creators?

In this interview, I talk to Jack Mallers, CEO of Strike. We discuss the launch of the Strike API, integrating Bitcoin with Twitter, and the accelerating network effects of Lightning.

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Bitcoin Mining 101 with Harry Sudock - WBD400 Sep 22, 2021

Show notes

Location: New York Date: Sunday 19th September Company: Griid Infrastructure Role: VP of Strategy

Bitcoin mining requires energy expenditure as a fundamental pillar of the proof-of-work consensus mechanism. While bitcoin is considered energy-intensive by some, it is often misreported in the media, overlooking its importance and the positive benefits for humanity of having sound money.

Similarly, while some criticise bitcoin mining as wasteful, there is ignorance regarding how mining companies are improving communities, the efficiency of the energy grid, and even the impact of energy use itself.

So how is bitcoin mining a driving force for beneficial change?

In this interview, I talk to Harry Sudock, Vice President of Strategy at Griid. We discuss how bitcoin mining works, mining as a force for good globally, and demonetising the political class.

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The Embedded Growth Problem with Rob Hamilton - WBD399 Sep 20, 2021

Show notes

Location: New York Date: Friday 17th September Role: Programmer & Data Scientist

Since the early 1970s, society has seen an explosion of progress in the digital world. As per Moore's law, we've seen increasing computing power at decreasing costs, but at the same time, there has been a stagnation of progress in physical sciences and related technologies.

This stagnation has caused problems for institutions and economic systems built around a paradigm of embedded growth.

So what has caused this great stagnation? And can Bitcoin fix it?

In this interview, I talk to programmer & data scientist Rob Hamilton. We discuss the embedded growth problem, stagnation leading to violence, and how bitcoin realigns natural progress.

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