The Peter McCormack Show

Location: Los Angeles Date: Sunday, 31st August Project: Kraken Role: Director Of Business Development Bitcoin is hard! There is no easy way into Bitcoin. Yes, it can be easy to buy, but understanding the asset, from economics to the tech, requires a dedication to learning. For Bitcoin to reach hundreds of millions, if not billions of people and overturn our corrupt financial systems, it must become more accessible. The Bitcoin community lends itself to the technically savvy and inquisitive. However, to reach mainstream adoption, Bitcoin needs to work for people who are not technically confident and are more risk-averse. For a new Bitcoiner with little or no technical knowledge, even the most fundamental and straightforward requirements in Bitcoin, such as managing your private keys, is a daunting task. There are no insurance policies, no 3rd party to fall back on, and if mismanaged the consequences are severe. Controlling and managing your private keys is fundamental to Bitcoin and the cypherpunk movement. It is this that allows you to stay sovereign and in control of your finances. Phrases such as "not your keys, not your Bitcoin" are used to remind people to take money off exchanges and away from custodial services and therefore 3rd party risk. These fundamental parts of Bitcoin are challenging and inherently pose some risk. Is this the model that we take into hyperbitcoinisation? Or, is the user experience entirely flawed? If we are to bring Bitcoin to the masses, do we need some form of custodial services, or can better UX provide the solution? In this interview, I am joined by Dan Held, who's company Interchange was recently acquired by Kraken. We discuss the UX challenges Bitcoin faces, the importance of nodes, advertising and marketing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Location: Los Angeles Date: Sunday, 1st September Project: Guns N' Bitcoin Role: Chief Range Officer America has the highest number of civilian-owned guns in the world, with around 40% of people owning or living in a house with firearms. The right to own a gun is firmly embedded within the US constitution and to many Americans, removing their ability to do so would be an attack on their civil liberty. Since 1982 there have been over 110 mass shootings in the U.S alone. With every mass shooting, the media spotlight is drawn towards U.S gun laws and polls show that the majority of Americans are now dissatisfied with them. However, as mass shootings only account for a small proportion of all gun deaths, is it unfair to remove the right to bear arms from U.S citizens? Should the small number of incidents change the law for the vast majority of responsible gun owners? It is easy to draw comparisons between guns and Bitcoin as both align with libertarian principles. Where guns give you the owner the ability to protect themselves from individuals and tyrannical gove, Bitcoin allows holders to protect yourself from corrupt financial systems and poor state monetary policies. For this polarising topic, I am joined by Bitcoiner and gun advocate Ragnar Lifthrasir from Guns N' Bitcoin. We discuss the culture of guns in America, if there should be a limit to the type of weapon you can buy, Bitcoin and privacy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. So, what was life like at Coinbase for Balaji? Coinbase has often felt the wrath of Bitcoiners, many arguing that they were on the wrong side of history regarding the New York Agreement. Add to this delay in implementing Segwit and supporting other contentious forks, does Coinbase hate Bitcoin? In Part 2 of my interview with Balaji, we explore the world of Bitcoin, altcoins and Coinbase. Is it irresponsible for Coinbase, an entry-level Bitcoin onramp, to list an ever-growing list of questionable altcoins? Is the earn.com integration encouraging risky token investments? Balaji Srinivasan joined me in San Francisco to discuss this and lots more. As well as: The Earn.com acquisition Whether daily active users is a flawed metric for cryptocurrency ICO's, scams and founders dumping on retail investors Whether Earn.com should be teaching risk management Democratising investment The lack of adoption for many cryptocurrencies Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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