What Bitcoin Did with Peter McCormack Peter McCormack

“The system is better off with a neutral asset that can price everything because, without a neutral asset, you have no pricing of anything…money must be neutral. And there is no neutral money outside of Bitcoin at the moment.”— Izabella Kaminska
Izabella Kaminska is a journalist and founder and editor of The Blind Spot. In this interview, we discuss the failure of current mainstream journalism to cover subjects properly, why the destruction of the middle class is dangerous for democracy, the endemic problem of corruption in politics, and the need for an honest economic orthodoxy.
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In a lot of ways, we are in a gold age of media. There have never been so many different ways to consume news and opinion. This has been triggered by many factors: deregulation, technology and the atomisation of modern society. But, this also creates a significant number of problems. Principally, whilst there is more freely accessible information, it is now harder to discern fact from fake.
The commercialisation of news has resulted in a race for clickbait: polarising reporting, increasing sensationalism, and relegating in-depth examination. Conversely, those organisations seeking to remain impartial such as the BBC, end up getting lost in a sea of conflicting missions. This has resulted in the BBC failing in its main mission to inform, educate and entertain.
This is why new media brands are becoming important promulgators of information, increasingly at the expense of traditional media organisations. Amongst all the noise, people are looking for honest and relatable brokers of news. Further, people are craving more intellectually curious, nuanced and detailed analysis. This is the demand Izabella Kaminska’s The Blind Spot media venture is seeking to fill. A demand that mainstream media is unwilling or unable to satisfy.
It’s hard: building a new brand takes time. But, without such content, groups on both the left and right will continue to mischaracterize issues that require understanding, trade-offs and proportionality. This will exacerbate the problems of polarisation and the veiled promotion of corporate interests. We need more journalists like Isabella willing to report the truth.
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This episode’s sponsors:Gemini - Buy Bitcoin instantlyIris Energy - Bitcoin Mining. Done Sustainably Ledn - Financial services for Bitcoin hodlersBitcasino - The Future of Gaming is hereLedger - State of the art Bitcoin hardware walletFortris - Digital asset treasury operationsWasabi Wallet - Privacy by default-----
WBD638 - Show Notes
-----If you enjoy The What Bitcoin Did Podcast you can help support the show by doing the following:Become a Patron and get access to shows early or help contributeMake a tip:Bitcoin: 3FiC6w7eb3dkcaNHMAnj39ANTAkv8Ufi2SQR Codes: BitcoinIf you do send a tip then please email me so that I can say thank youSubscribe on iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | Deezer | TuneIn | RSS FeedLeave a review on iTunesShare the show and episodes with your friends and familySubscribe to the newsletter on my websiteFollow me on Twitter Personal | Twitter Podcast | Instagram | Medium | YouTubeIf you are interested in sponsoring the show, you can read more about that here or please feel free to drop me an email to discuss options.

“Do we want everybody in the world to be orange-pilled, and to share in all of the shared values of the Bitcoin community? And do we think that’s a realistic goal? Or do we want as many people as possible to use Bitcoin as a thing, even though they might not share in the values and just don’t give a fuck?”— Sergej Kotliar
Sergej Kotliar is the founder and CEO of Bitrefill. In this interview, we discuss enabling Bitcoin circular economies, the mission of Bitrefill to be a financial empowerment company, the risks and rewards of using zero-confs for processing transactions, and the many different cultures and communities Bitcoin has spawned.
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Bitrefill is the largest crypto e-commerce platform in the world. It aims to facilitate the development of crypto circular economies. Whilst Bitcoin makes up a significant portion of their business, they are not a Bitcoin-only company. The mission is aimed at empowering people to undertake transactions on the internet that would otherwise not be possible for them. To that end, they pragmatically enable the use of Bitcoin, stablecoins, and a limited number of altcoins.
The argument in favour of their strategy is compelling. Not everyone will respond to ideological arguments in favour of Bitcoin. Whilst there are many who will get drawn in by Bitcoin’s compelling theoretical roots, there are many others who are more concerned with prosaic day-to-day concerns. To maximise efforts to increase adoption we, therefore, need to appeal to a range of visions for Bitcoin. One important vision is focused on Bitcoin’s dry technical utilities.
In our discussion, Sergej refers to the increase in the use of the internet and other technologies such as VPN. The widespread growth in the use of such technologies occurs as a result of a practical benefit being provided to users, not because adopters are seeking to mitigate a certain political or ethical concern. That’s not to say that selling Bitcoin as freedom money isn’t critical. Rather, we need to augment it with other strategies.
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This episode’s sponsors:Gemini - Buy Bitcoin instantlyIris Energy - Bitcoin Mining. Done Sustainably Ledn - Financial services for Bitcoin hodlersBitcasino - The Future of Gaming is hereLedger - State of the art Bitcoin hardware walletFortris - Digital asset treasury operationsWasabi Wallet - Privacy by default-----
WBD637 - Show Notes
-----If you enjoy The What Bitcoin Did Podcast you can help support the show by doing the following:Become a Patron and get access to shows early or help contributeMake a tip:Bitcoin: 3FiC6w7eb3dkcaNHMAnj39ANTAkv8Ufi2SQR Codes: BitcoinIf you do send a tip then please email me so that I can say thank youSubscribe on iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | Deezer | TuneIn | RSS FeedLeave a review on iTunesShare the show and episodes with your friends and familySubscribe to the newsletter on my websiteFollow me on Twitter Personal | Twitter Podcast | Instagram | Medium | YouTubeIf you are interested in sponsoring the show, you can read more about that here or please feel free to drop me an email to discuss options.

“That meatspace layer between the computer and your brain is unencrypted…if this last mile is not encrypted, then all of the securities that we can gain in cyberspace are null and void. Now, because you type in your 24 words, and the camera picks it up, all of a sudden, your super awesome anonymous money is no longer anonymous nor secure. And that’s a really, really big issue.”— Max Hillebrand
Max Hillebrand is an economist and open-source entrepreneur who runs Agora Towards Liberty. In this interview, we discuss fiat money’s fundamental weaknesses, the teachings of Austrian Economics, the importance of privacy, and how nano cameras mean privacy technology will need to keep evolving.
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Whilst the Bitcoin innovation was primarily predicated on the technical needs for enabling permissionless and uncensorable digital peer-to-peer transactions, its development was heavily influenced by the Austrian school of economics. At its root, Bitcoin is tied to the ethics of money production, where money production should be decentralized and not subject to the whims of a central authority.
The long-held fear of Austrian economists was that centralized control of money production would result in monetary inflation: governments would be unable to resist the temptation to print money as quick fixes to crises. This obviously impacts the value of the money being inflated, violating one of the core principles of money to be a reliable store of value. The problem for governments, as we’re seeing, is that the power to print money becomes an uncontrollable force.
Despite the inevitable fragility of fiat currencies, an alternative sound monetary system can hasten the collapse of fiat currencies during periods of loose monetary policy. This incentivises governments to constrain or ban access to such alternatives. See Executive Order 6102. This means that privacy for such alternatives is paramount. This is why Bitcoin privacy is vital. Because, when fiat currencies collapse, governments will come for people’s Bitcoin.
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This episode’s sponsors:Gemini - Buy Bitcoin instantlyIris Energy - Bitcoin Mining. Done Sustainably Ledn - Financial services for Bitcoin hodlersBitcasino - The Future of Gaming is hereLedger - State of the art Bitcoin hardware walletFortris - Digital asset treasury operationsWasabi Wallet - Privacy by default-----
WBD636 - Show Notes
-----If you enjoy The What Bitcoin Did Podcast you can help support the show by doing the following:Become a Patron and get access to shows early or help contributeMake a tip:Bitcoin: 3FiC6w7eb3dkcaNHMAnj39ANTAkv8Ufi2SQR Codes: BitcoinIf you do send a tip then please email me so that I can say thank youSubscribe on iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | Deezer | TuneIn | RSS FeedLeave a review on iTunesShare the show and episodes with your friends and familySubscribe to the newsletter on my websiteFollow me on Twitter Personal | Twitter Podcast | Instagram | Medium | YouTubeIf you are interested in sponsoring the show, you can read more about that here or please feel free to drop me an email to discuss options.

“We’ve politicised everything. Problems aren’t problems anymore. For the left: what is their approach? For the right: what is their approach? And it’s because the political system is broken. And obviously, most of the listeners and we know it’s also the financial system is completely broken.”— Trey Walsh
Trey Walsh is a nonprofit director and progressive Bitcoiner. In this interview, we discuss the problems facing Gen Z: climate change, high education and housing costs, wider economic problems constraining opportunities, the erosion of democracy, and social media-induced mental health challenges. We talk about why Bitcoin could provide hope to this hopeless generation.
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Gen Z is suffering. They have been excluded from the growth in asset prices over the past few decades, but are facing the dire consequences of spiralling debt on the provision of public services. They are being excluded from discussions about climate change, yet they will be expected to front the response in the coming decades.
They are being told they are too woke, ignorant and lazy by those under whose watch democracy has been allowed to crumble. And whilst there is a dearth of ethical and inspiring leaders charting a path for this disillusioned generation, there is a significant amount of vitriolic noise in the media, exploiting the fear in return for eyeballs, clicks and likes.
Gen Z’s hopelessness is manifesting itself in a mental health crisis: compared to other generations Gen Z has lower feelings of emotional well-being. The response of older generations is that Gen Z-ers are snowflakes - they need to toughen up. This is cruelly counterproductive as Gen Z is least likely to seek help: they are 3 times more likely to consider suicide than other generations.
Into this void of despair comes Bitcoin. There has been a timely reappraisal of the “Bitcoin fixes this” meme over the past year. Obviously, Bitcoin is not a panacea for all of the world's ills. But, it is a technology that is providing hope to those developing material mitigations to some of the most deep-rooted problems in our society.
Trey Walsh strongly believes that Bitcoin provides hope for the environment, for a more socially-just economic system and for democracy. It offers this as politicians and decision-makers continue to peddle obvious self-serving fantasies. As Trey asserts, “Gen Z deserves the opportunity to be presented with the stories of hope in Bitcoin.” This is why we should be working for Bitcoin: it provides “hope for a generation found hopeless.”
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This episode’s sponsors:Gemini - Buy Bitcoin instantlyIris Energy - Bitcoin Mining. Done Sustainably Ledn - Financial services for Bitcoin hodlersBitcasino - The Future of Gaming is hereLedger - State of the art Bitcoin hardware walletFortris - Digital asset treasury operationsWasabi Wallet - Privacy by default-----
WBD635 - Show Notes
-----If you enjoy The What Bitcoin Did Podcast you can help support the show by doing the following:Become a Patron and get access to shows early or help contributeMake a tip:Bitcoin: 3FiC6w7eb3dkcaNHMAnj39ANTAkv8Ufi2SQR Codes: BitcoinIf you do send a tip then please email me so that I can say thank youSubscribe on iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | Deezer | TuneIn | RSS FeedLeave a review on iTunesShare the show and episodes with your friends and familySubscribe to the newsletter on my websiteFollow me on Twitter Personal | Twitter Podcast | Instagram | Medium | YouTubeIf you are interested in sponsoring the show, you can read more about that here or please feel free to drop me an email to discuss options.

“Ejection from the banking system can be random. Happens for political reasons in the US all the time. It’s rarely reported about. And, in a way, it’s more devastating than being on probation for having been convicted for something, because not being able to bank in 2023 is akin to not being able to function in society.”— Doomberg
Doomberg is an anonymous collective producing the world’s most popular financial substack. In this interview, we discuss coordinated action against the crypto industry being undertaken with limited congressional approval or oversight. We talk about historical precedents, what this could mean for Bitcoin and Bitcoiners, and why we need a financial bill of rights.
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Mark Twain once said that “History never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme.” Therefore, Bitcoiners should be extremely wary of the recent precedents of a ruling US administration being willing to de-bank business verticals antithetical to certain political beliefs. In 2011, the Obama administration targeted selected online poker businesses. In 2013, the same administration used the DoJ to lean on banks doing business with firearm dealers and payday lenders.
The problem is simple: a legitimate business and/or technology is kneecapped by a ruling body for subjective political reasons. Public-private institutions, such as banks, are lent on to hamper the functioning of businesses earmarked as being problematic. The fundamental issue is the methods applied are anti-democratic. There is no open debate or examination. A decision is made behind closed doors, and people, institutions and businesses are pressured to comply.
We are currently witnessing coordinated illiberal action against crypto-aligned companies. The intent is clear. Yet, there has been no debate. And whilst Bitcoiners may gain comfort from the actions being taken against crypto, the problem is politicians haven’t revealed their full intentions yet. It is highly likely that Bitcoin is also in their crosshairs. As Doomberg asserts “eventually they'll come for your Bitcoin too.”
What this lays bare is the willingness of those in control to de-bank perceived enemies. De-banking at face value may seem like an annoyance, but it actually strips an individual of agency. A person without access to the financial system is effectively neutered. It is a malevolent, silent and effective means of control. And, the methods applied a decade ago are being reapplied to control first crypto, and then Bitcoin. Be aware, be prepared, and raise hell.
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This episode’s sponsors:Gemini - Buy Bitcoin instantlyIris Energy - Bitcoin Mining. Done Sustainably Ledn - Financial services for Bitcoin hodlersBitcasino - The Future of Gaming is hereLedger - State of the art Bitcoin hardware walletFortris - Digital asset treasury operationsWasabi Wallet - Privacy by default-----
WBD634 - Show Notes
-----If you enjoy The What Bitcoin Did Podcast you can help support the show by doing the following:Become a Patron and get access to shows early or help contributeMake a tip:Bitcoin: 3FiC6w7eb3dkcaNHMAnj39ANTAkv8Ufi2SQR Codes: BitcoinIf you do send a tip then please email me so that I can say thank youSubscribe on iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | Deezer | TuneIn | RSS FeedLeave a review on iTunesShare the show and episodes with your friends and familySubscribe to the newsletter on my websiteFollow me on Twitter Personal | Twitter Podcast | Instagram | Medium | YouTubeIf you are interested in sponsoring the show, you can read more about that here or please feel free to drop me an email to discuss options.

“The Fed’s going to end up having to expand its balance sheet again, to proverbially print money, in order to provide the extra cash for the banks to be able to meet the demand deposit withdrawal; the banks should have been sitting on that cash all along.”— Caitlin Long
Caitlin Long is the Founder and CEO of Custodia bank. In this interview, we discuss the events that have led to three banking failures within a week, one of which saw the biggest bank run on record. We talk about anti-crypto coordination involving the US government, the inherent instability of the traditional finance system and how this is another signal that the game is up.
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As the saying goes, to lose one bank may be regarded as a misfortune, to lose two banks looks like carelessness. How should we regard the loss of three banks within a week? To the uninitiated, this may look like a contagion, but it’s the impacts of two different systemic problems affecting two different markets: crypto and fiat. What it lays bare is the hypocrisy and instability of the traditional financial system.
The failures of Silvergate and Signature are rooted in the 2022 implosion in crypto. Precipitated by the collapse of Luna, we all know what followed: a nest of over-leveraged, hypothecated and fraudulent investments that fell like a house of cards. Who knows when it will end. Regardless, more recent failures seem to have been expedited by coordinated government action.
The obvious signal from the levers of power is that crypto is bad, and traditional finance is good. But what should have been an opportunity for the government to present the perceived weaknesses within digital asset markets, was significantly undercut by the biggest bank run in history: Silicon Valley Bank’s customers were withdrawing more than $1 million per second for 10 hours straight a little over a week ago.
The sorry mess is actually a clear vindication of Bitcoiners' assertions that both crypto and fiat are both fundamentally unstable. The search for yield is endemic. The management of risk is too often criminally deficient. The argument is that narrow banking (full reserve banking) will suck deposits from risky banks, making risky banks even riskier, increasing systemic risk.
However, the system is becoming increasingly dysfunctional. Moral hazard seems endemic. Increasingly large bailouts are being used to keep the game going. The aim is to maintain the illusion that the financial system is stable. It is anything but, and everyone knows it. We’re entering a period on unknown risks. The time to change the rules of the game has long passed.
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This episode’s sponsors:Gemini - Buy Bitcoin instantlyIris Energy - Bitcoin Mining. Done Sustainably Ledn - Financial services for Bitcoin hodlersBitcasino - The Future of Gaming is hereLedger - State of the art Bitcoin hardware walletFortris - Digital asset treasury operationsWasabi Wallet - Privacy by default-----
WBD633 - Show Notes
-----If you enjoy The What Bitcoin Did Podcast you can help support the show by doing the following:Become a Patron and get access to shows early or help contributeMake a tip:Bitcoin: 3FiC6w7eb3dkcaNHMAnj39ANTAkv8Ufi2SQR Codes: BitcoinIf you do send a tip then please email me so that I can say thank youSubscribe on iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | Deezer | TuneIn | RSS FeedLeave a review on iTunesShare the show and episodes with your friends and familySubscribe to the newsletter on my websiteFollow me on Twitter Personal | Twitter Podcast | Instagram | Medium | YouTubeIf you are interested in sponsoring the show, you can read more about that here or please feel free to drop me an email to discuss options.