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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:

Raoul Pal on Bitcoin as a Global Recession Hedge - WBD140 Aug 20, 2019

Show notes

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

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Hassan Khoshtaghaza on Operating a UK Bitcoin ATM - WBD139 Aug 16, 2019

Show notes

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.

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Bitcoin ATM Regulations with Bill Repasky - WBD138 Aug 15, 2019

Show notes

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.

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Putting Bitcoin on Every Block with Chris Yim from LibertyX - WBD137 Aug 14, 2019

Show notes

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.

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Karel Kyovsky on Manufacturing Bitcoin ATMs - WBD136 Aug 13, 2019

Show notes

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.

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Operating Bitcoin ATMs with Gil Valentine & Eric Gravengaard from Athena - WBD135 Aug 12, 2019

Show notes

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.

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John Newbery on Building a Bitcoin Developer Community - WBD134 Aug 09, 2019

Show notes

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.

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Down the Bitcoin Rabbit Hole with Matt Odell & Marty Bent - WBD133 Aug 06, 2019

Show notes

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.

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Pieter Wuille on Building Bitcoin - WBD132 Aug 02, 2019

Show notes

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.

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Silvergate's Alan Lane on Banking the Corporate Unbanked - WBD131 Jul 30, 2019

Show notes

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.

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