The Peter McCormack Show

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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