The Peter McCormack Show

Location: Zoom Date: Saturday 27th June Project: Tonga Role: Tongan Politician & Noble of the Realm. Following El Salvador's groundbreaking decision to make bitcoin legal tender, politicians from all over Central & South America, Africa and the Pacific Islands began putting laser eyes in their Twitter bios and publicly endorsing bitcoin. One of these politicians was Lord Fusituʻa, a Tongan politician. Tonga is a small country in the South Pacific. Their economy relies heavily on remittances, most notably from Australia, New Zealand and the United States. With close to 41% of their GDP coming from remittance and fees, sometimes as high as 50%, the Polynesian country would benefit greatly from removing these middle-man fees. After seeing Strike's success in El Salvador and their government's steps to legalise bitcoin, Lord Fusituʻa wants to bring bitcoin to Tonga. In this episode, I talk to Tongan Politician and Noble of the Realm, Lord Fusituʻa. We discuss the history of Tonga, why the country relies so heavily on remittance payments and the steps he is taking to bring Bitcoin to the Tongan people.

Location: Remotely Date: Friday 25th June Project: CJ Wilson Racing, WBD Employee of the Month Role: Owner and founder, N/A CJ Wilson has led an exciting life. He was a two-time All-star during his decade-long major league baseball career, and he went on to found a professional sports car racing team. Given his understanding of sound money, bitcoin was something he had to pursue to protect his wealth. CJ is a bitcoin maximalist, a term initially coined as a pejorative and now worn as a badge of honour. The culture of toxicity is under constant criticism, with opponents suggesting it pushes people away from Bitcoin, while bitcoiners maintain it’s an essential defence against scams and misinformation. Critics claim that maximalism itself is in opposition to liberty, but taking a hard stance is a cornerstone of sovereignty. Is maximalism anti-freedom? Or is it simply the free market’s rallying cry of a monetary revolution? In this interview, I talk to American HODL & MLB all-star and sports car racer CJ Wilson. We discuss CJs sports career, racing fast cars and the role of toxic bitcoin maximalism.

Location: Remotely Date: Tuesday 22nd June Project: Kraken Role: Head of OTC Options Trading Derivatives are contracts that allow traders to take a position with an asset based on possible outcomes; while they can provide dramatic rewards, they come with risk. Derivative exchanges have been a growing part of the maturing bitcoin ecosystem. However, with the rise of exchanges like FTX and Binance, offering high leverage, there is an increasing lens on these exchanges.  Derivative contracts are a valuable tool for experienced traders. With exchanges offering leverage of up to 125x, inexperienced traders can quickly amass significant losses. Whenever bitcoin has a sharp move in either direction, those on the wrong side of the trade often get liquidated. These capitulation events regularly wipe out hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars in positions.  Some people suggest that high amounts of leverage are detrimental to the price discovery of bitcoin, but it's clear from the rise of certain exchanges that these are the types of markets traders want.  In this interview, I talk to Juthica Chou,  Head of OTC Options Trading at Kraken. We discuss how bitcoin derivatives work, the different types of contracts, and Microstrategy's leverage plays.

Location: Remotely Date: Thursday 24th June Project: Hypersheet Role: Co-Founder Over the last few weeks, a significant amount of bad news and FUD has circulated bitcoin. Elon Musk publicly questioned the energy mix used by the bitcoin network shortly before the initial drop to ~$30k, and since then, Bitcoin has ranged between $30k and $40k. While other positive news has come to market, such as El Salvador making Bitcoin legal tender, the news cycle has been dominated by bearish narratives, from energy concerns to China, again, banning Bitcoin.  During this period, the hash rate has dropped by nearly 50% as miners turn off their machines and move out of China, and the difficulty adjustment, expected around 2nd July, is expected to drop by over 25%. The last month has been turbulent in bitcoin, and the narrative has become cloudy, with bitcoin continually defending the ~$30k mark. Is this the bottom? Or just the start of a longer-term bear market? In this interview, I talk to on-chain analyst and the co-founder of Hypersheet, Willy Woo. We discuss the reliability of on-chain data and TA, miners moving out of China and whether we have entered a bear market.

Location: Remotely Date: Tuesday 22nd June Project: lynalden.com Role: Macroeconomist The new legislation in El Salvador making Bitcoin legal tender is a bold move for the country. As a dollarised nation and with remittance making up 15% of GDP, there are clear benefits in bringing bitcoin and the Lightning Network to the country. A catalyst for this move is the macroeconomic fallout of 2020 which included unprecedented monetary expansion and economic disruption. Today, it seems some of the effects are starting to appear in price inflation and oddities in the overnight lending markets between financial institutions. Will El Salvador’s bet on Bitcoin pay off? And are these simply transitory macroeconomic irregularities, or is there cause for concern? In this interview, I talk to Lyn Alden, a macroeconomist and investment strategist. We discuss El Salvador making Bitcoin legal tender, other countries adopting Bitcoin, the Lightning Network and the reverse repo market.

Location: El Salvador Date: Friday 18th June Project: El Salvador Role: President Twenty years ago, El Salvador became a dollarised nation, bringing economic stability to the country and improving the country's potential for investment. However, it did so at the cost of giving up its monetary policy to the US Federal bank. Two decades later, following the COVID-19, the global economic outlook has changed significantly. As a result, the Fed has taken extreme measures to combat the economic impact of the pandemic and is printing money at previously unseen levels.  The stimulus packages that help American's do not make their way to dollarised El Salvador, but the people of Salvadorans do suffer the adverse effects of the US debasing the dollar. Two years ago, Nayib Bukele won a landslide presidential election in El Salvador, becoming the first President since the Salvadoran Civil War who did not represent either of the two major parties. As the founder of the political party Nuevas Ideas, President Bukele lived up to his reputation when on the 8th of June 2021, El Salvador enacted its Bitcoin Law, making it the first country to adopt bitcoin as a legal tender. The decision has been met with excitement and scepticism.  Could this bold move be a catalyst for prosperity in El Salvador? And will other nations follow suit, potentially helping billions? In his first interview since the Bitcoin law was passed, I talked to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. We discuss the decision to make bitcoin legal tender, education & infrastructure, volcano mining, and why he believes bitcoin is a ‘no-brainer’.

Location: El Salvador Date: Thursday 17th June Project: Strike Role: CEO El Salvador made history by becoming the first country to embrace bitcoin as legal tender. This bold step to adopt Bitcoin empowers Salvadorians and utilises Bitcoin's powerful technology to build a better financial future for the country.  As a dollarised country, El Salvador is at the whim of the Fed, and the groundbreaking legislation included this excerpt: "Central banks are increasingly taking actions that may cause harm to the economic stability of El Salvador; That in order to mitigate the negative impact from central banks, it becomes necessary to authorise the circulation of a digital currency with a supply that cannot be controlled by any central bank." The bitcoin project in El Salvador has a long history; Bitcoin Beach, a project started by Michael Peterson in El Zonte, a surf town that has become a bitcoin hub in El Salvador. This local project has become the poster child of what a bitcoin community and economy can look like. Jack Mallers and the Strike team have taken El Salvador by storm, but this story is bigger than any one person. From Bitcoin Beach to developers, and the entire community, every bitcoiner played a part in bringing a fair and inclusive financial future to El Salvador. In this interview, I talk to Jack Mallers, CEO of Strike. We discuss the story that led to Bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador, all the credit due to the community, and his mission to secure financial freedom for all.

Harry Sudock, Vice President of Strategy at Griid Infrastructure, tackles the heated debate over Bitcoin's energy consumption. He dives into the misconceptions fueled by mainstream media and influential figures regarding Bitcoin mining's environmental impact. Sudock presents how crypto mining can benefit communities and bridge energy waste challenges. He also discusses the advantages of renewable energy and nuclear energy's role in the mix, emphasizing Bitcoin mining as a viable solution to excess energy issues and a path toward improved accessibility.

Location: New York Date: Wednesday 9th June Project: michaelmalice.com Role: Author It's a common misconception that anarchy revolves around chaos and war when it is simply about freedom. Anarchists want to see the removal of all government and society to run on an entirely voluntary, cooperative basis. While it's uncertain what our world would look like without rulers, technology is the greatest driver of transformation in the modern world. Bitcoin has realised an anarchist dream as an incorruptible form of money, controlled by the people outside of government intervention. It is a powerful catalyst for freedom. Michael Malice is a staunch anarchist and author who believes anarchism is an apparatus for achieving human joy. In this interview, we discuss how the world would operate without state intervention, the human propensity for cooperation, and how Bitcoin is a catalyst for change.

Location: New York Date: Wednesday 9th June As of February 2021, annual growth in the money supply reached 39% in the US, leading to widespread fears of inflation and the impact on the economy. Consumer prices soared 5% in May, the largest increase since 2008. While the Fed has argued that inflation will revert to normal by next year, others are looking to hedge the risk of inflation. Bitcoin is viewed by many as the ultimate inflation hedge. With its fixed monetary policy and transparent, consistent and decreasing supply issuance, it is the antithesis of fiat currencies, perpetually debased by governments' increasingly extreme monetary policy. Are we right to fear more significant inflation? And what role do Bonds and Bitcoin play? In this interview, I talk to William Elman and Greg Mercer. We discuss bond yields and what they signal, the pros and cons of market intervention and the ever-increasing government debt.