The Peter McCormack Show

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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