The Peter McCormack Show

Location: Remote Date: Wednesday 25th November Project: Plebnet The benefits of the Lightning Network are clear for all to see. By taking transactions off-chain, you can settle almost instantly for a tiny fee while retaining better privacy than with an on-chain transaction. The Lightning Network is paramount to Bitcoin's scaling, and it is growing at a rapid pace, but while the Lightning Network is thriving, for new users it can still be a daunting experience. When running a Lightning node, you need to consider things like opening and closing channels, channel size, rebalancing and liquidity. Luckily, Plebnet is here to help. Starting out as a small group of people looking to educate and onboard Bitcoiners to Lightning, they have grown into a community of over 5,000 members and over 1,100 nodes. In this interview, I talk to American HODL, P, and D++. We discuss the importance of the Lightning Network, the challenges of onboarding people and the growth of Plebnet.

Location: Remote Date: Monday 22nd November Project: lynalden.com Role: Macroeconomist In the last month alone, Bitcoin has hit all-time high prices, Bitcoin on exchanges has hit multi-year lows, and El Salvador announced a $1 billion Bitcoin bond to fund the development of a Bitcoin city. At the same time, economic signals have started to flash red. Inflation is on the rise: it's hit 6.2% in the US and is rising at the fastest rate in decades. Traditionally strong bond markets are under pressure and currencies in some parts of the world show signs of distress. The dichotomy is that whilst some search for safe havens, with the lack of a positive yielding bond market, many are looking to riskier assets.  The economic conditions for bitcoin to become a recognised international gold-like reserve asset are upon us. The scope and scale of bitcoin adoption suggest that major players are literally buying into this narrative.  In this interview, I talk to macroeconomist and investment strategist Lyn Alden. We discuss the lack of yield in bond markets, El Salvador's bitcoin bonds, inflation and the direction and role of the Fed. 

Location: London Date: Friday 19th November Project: Compass Mining Role: Founder & CEO Proof of Work is the bedrock of Bitcoin. It provides the network security but is not immune to attack. One attack vector is a collusion of miners who gain a significant amount of the hashrate could theoretically block transactions and reorganise the blockchain. This is known as a 51% attack. While this is known as a 51% attack, it would likely require significantly more than 51% of hashpower to pull off this attack. However, in 2014 GHash.io were able to attain 55% of the hashrate, but fortunately, they were willing to assist the community in overcoming this potential weakness.  For a number of years, China housed a large amount of the hashpower, but their seemingly reckless geopolitical decision to willingly allow for ‘the great mining migration’ to occur earlier this year, saved the community from another dangerous consolidation of mining power. Compass Mining recognised this fragility, but also a business opportunity in being able to become a recognised and trusted facilitator of retail mining, with the mission to “support the decentralised growth of hashrate and strengthen network security by helping more people, learn, explore and mine bitcoin.” To that end, they provide and support retail access to mining infrastructure while hardware ownership remains in the hands of individuals.  In this interview, I talk to the Founder and CEO of Compass Mining, Whit Gibbs, about their rapid success, the associated growing pains they’re overcoming, and the technical details of connecting retail mining with physical hardware and power markets.

Location: Remotely Date: Tuesday 16th November Project: Human Rights Foundation & ShapeShift Role: Chief Strategy Officer & CEO, Founder The schism between Bitcoin maximalists, and those who champion altcoins, is a feature of the ecosystem. The arguments are well worn. However, the history of the debate has largely been regarded as toxic.  Maximalists tend to believe that, at best, ‘altcoins’ are inferior iterations of Bitcoin that involve a compromise, usually greater centralization in favour of larger transaction capacity. The compounding issue is that the majority of these tokens are scams, efforts to rug pull ignorant retail investors. Either way, altcoins are neither aligned to, nor on a trajectory to align with, Bitcoin. Altcoin advocates point to the rapid innovation happening in the space, where the TradFi is being disrupted in real-time. This is whilst the promise of Bitcoin being a foundational layer for DeFi remains just that, a promise.  In this interview, I discuss the ideological differences between Bitcoin and altcoins with Erik Voorhees & Alex Gladstein. We discuss the importance of Bitcoin, monetary policies, the political science of blockchains, and consensus & coercion.

Location: London Date: Tuesday 9th November Project: Bitcoin Magazine Role: Print Editor-In-Chief When I first visited El Salvador, towards the end of 2019, Michael Petersen was in the early stages of implementing his vision of a local bitcoin economy in the coastal village of El Zonte. What started as a small-scale experiment has become a transformative initiative and a key driver in the country's adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender. On 7th June 2021, El Salvador passed the Bitcoin Law, with an ambitious plan to replicate El Zonte nationwide and make Bitcoin a central part of El Salvador’s economy. Nayib Bukele, the Salvadoran President, mandated an ambitious 3-month deadline to implement the Law. And, despite the complete lack of both public and private infrastructure, on 7th September 2021, El Salvador became the first country in the world to make Bitcoin legal tender. In this interview, I talk to journalist and Print Editor-In-Chief at Bitcoin Magazine, Aaron Van Wirdum. We discuss the implementation of the Bitcoin law, what has changed in El Salvador and which nation-states might follow in their footsteps.

Location: Remotely Date: Thursday 11th November Project: anitaposch.com Role: Author, Podcaster, Educator It’s easy to forget that those who have acquired Bitcoin are still early adopters, with the enthusiasm and courage to have found the appropriate resources needed to investigate this still nascent and mysterious creation.  However, the key to the next wave of Bitcoin adoption, encompassing a wider cross section of society, is education specifically tailored to the needs of later adopters. For these people Bitcoin is surrounded in myths and impenetrable concepts. This is precisely the goal of Anita Posch’s new book (L)earn Bitcoin. It provides both the why, and the how, and is written for those to whom Bitcoin is a vague alien technology. Most importantly, the book provides guidance on how to take those initial steps to build confidence, and critically, safely buy and store bitcoin. Anita is also well known for being a leading Bitcoin educator in parts of the world for which sovereign wealth is literally life changing. In particular, Anita has travelled throughout Africa, teaching people with limited resources how to acquire and use Bitcoin. She is particularly focused on supporting vulnerable groups of women around the world for whom denial of sovereign wealth is culturally or even legally condoned.  In this interview I talk to fellow Bitcoin podcaster, author, advocate, and educator Anita Posch. Anita explains how Bitcoin provides emancipation from financial patriarchy at both the individual level and nation state level. We also talked about Anita’s educational work in Africa, the importance of building bridges and trust with communities in developing nations.

Location: New York Date: Friday 29th October Project: loomered.com This year’s Bitcoin 2021 conference was the biggest event in Bitcoin’s history, with over 12,000 people coming together in Miami. I was there to host one of the most hotly anticipated events called ‘Banking the Unbanked’ which saw my friend Alex Gladstein interview Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Jack didn't disappoint when he began by stating “Bitcoin changes everything… I don't think there's anything more important to work on in my lifetime.” Yet, the session is perhaps best known for the fact that activist Laura Loomer came to the stage and heckled Jack. Laura wanted a conversation with Jack about censorship, in light of the fact she has been banned from Twitter (amongst other platforms and services such as Facebook, Uber and PayPal). She was encouraged to leave, but before she did I promised to hear her out at a more appropriate time, so here we are. Whatever you think of Laura, ‘deplatforming’ is one of the most contentious issues in society today. It cuts to the heart of the debate around free speech and American’s first amendment rights. Should we have limits on speech? Or is ‘hate speech’ misapplied to muzzle acceptable discourse? Who decides on what is acceptable or not? And can private organisations remove voices from their platforms when they have become the world’s town square? Laura has tested these arguments in the courts by suing Twitter, Apple, Facebook, and Twitter. In this interview I talk to far-right political activist Laura Loomer. We discuss racism and religious discrimination, debanking and deplatforming, and the limits of free speech.

Location: New York Date: Friday 29th October Project: Forward Party Role: Leader Nearly two-thirds of Americans want to vote for someone outside of the current two main parties. The current duopoly is limiting competition in the space for ideas, and worse, it’s actively promoting the polarisation of society. Yet, voting for a third-party candidate isn’t a choice most voters get, and even when they do, it risks being deemed a wasted vote by a media that frames election results as an existential risk to the nation.  The underlying concern is that the current political system is getting in the way of solving the biggest problems at a time when the economy and society is changing in fundamental ways. But whilst most people can see that our politics and media are dysfunctional, they also feel impotent.  Andrew Yang is one of those rare individuals who has decided to actively try and change the system, despite the odds being stacked against change being driven by an outsider. However, he’s already shown he can do the heavy lifting: he made a meaningful mark on the 2020 Presidential election despite not being part of the political establishment or having had a celebrity platform.  In this interview, I talk to Andrew, author of ‘The War on Normal People’ (2018), ‘Forward’ (2021),  and leader of the Forward Party, about his 2020 Presidential run and his current mission to bring about genuine political competition. We then discuss what such competition would enable: reasoned debate about big ideas such as Universal Basic Income, health reform, and Bitcoin. 

Location: Los Angeles Date: Sunday 17th October Company: Freelance Role: Writer The internet democratised the dissemination of information. From news to social discourse, anyone with access to the internet can broadcast their thoughts to the world. With the growth of the internet and social media, the news business model entirely shifted. No longer could newspapers rely on physical sales. Instead, ad revenue and clicks became the meaningful metric.  Social media and clickbait articles, along with partisan organisations, have created a massively polarising media landscape. The news is now more politicised than ever.  This has led to social media becoming a feed of unverified news, and tech companies have taken it upon themselves to curate that news and decide what you should and shouldn't see.  In this interview, I talk to freelance writer Katherine Brodsky. We discuss free speech and censorship, the politicisation of news and the problems with banning misinformation.

Location: New York Date: Wednesday 27th October Company: Kraken & Bitcoin Magazine Role: Editor The role of Bitcoin maximalism is a hugely divisive topic. As a decentralised network, Bitcoin has no leaders or spokespeople to counter false information or fend off an attack. In the absence of leaders, bitcoiners from all over have become an important immune system for the network. They protect the protocol from bad actors, false narratives and prevent anyone from gaining too much influence over the network. This has proved highly effective and has been key throughout the history of Bitcoin. Most notably during the scaling wars that culminated in 2017. However, for all the good toxic maximalism has done, it can, at times, go too far. But in a world headed to hyperbitcoinisation, is Bitcoin maximalism an important ethical stand to take? In this interview, I talk to Pete Rizzo, the Editor at Kraken & Bitcoin Magazine. We discuss the ethics of bitcoin maximalism, its role in protecting bitcoin, and the path to hyperbitcoinisation.