Mr Obnoxious

Peter McCormack

1 Creator

I’m Peter McCormack. I have questions.

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Top 10 Mr Obnoxious Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Mr Obnoxious episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Mr Obnoxious for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Mr Obnoxious episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Pierre Rochard on Bitcoin Adoption Hurdles

Mr Obnoxious

10/29/19 • -1 min

Location: New York
Date: Tuesday, 22nd October
Project: Kraken
Role: Bitcoin Evangelist

Despite the arguments that Bitcoin is the hardest money, it is the opportunity for new Bitcoiners to make a profit in their local fiat currency which is the primary driver of awareness and adoption.

Since the launch of Bitcoin over 10 years ago, there have been a number of bull markets which has seen a rapid rise in the price of Bitcoin leading to wider awareness. The volume during the most recent bull run in 2017 led to exchanges struggling to cope with the volume and some dropping offline. Such was the demand that Bittrex and Bitfinex had to close down new user registrations.

Making it easier for new Bitcoiners to acquire the asset has been a key driver of adoption. Good exchange and wallet UX, and education regarding key issues such as private key management not only support adoption but help new Bitcoiners avoid making silly mistakes.

The Bitcoin rabbit hole is deep and there are many new concepts which can be intimidating to new Bitcoiners which sometimes OGs take for granted. Transacting alone requires consideration for a type of transaction fee, unconfirmed transactions and the reality that mistakes can’t be reversed.

Having talked to Hotep and followed his journey into Bitcoin and the distraction with shitcoins, people told me to ignore him. I wanted to do the opposite as I wanted to learn about how someone new sees the space.

Kraken recognises that UX can be a hurdle for adoption, and are working on making it as simple as possible for new Bitcoiners to acquire and understand the asset. They recently hired Bitcoin OG Pierre Rochard to help with onboarding new users and Bitcoin adoption.

In this interview, Pierre and I discuss why they were the right fit for him, mass adoption, onboarding, Bitcoin financial services and the lightning network.

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Is There Life After Democracy? with Vijay Boyapati

Mr Obnoxious

02/03/22 • 107 min

“I think we are very close to a catastrophic end for our civilisation… the earth is our womb, we were born and grew in the womb, but eventually, we have to escape; if we don’t escape that’s it - we’re never going to answer the big questions, we’re never going to survive as a species, we have to escape the earth.”
— Vijay Boyapati

Location: Los Angeles
Date: Tuesday 1st February
Company: Independent
Role: Software Engineer and Author

In 2005 Ray Kurzweil introduced the idea of the singularity: a point in the near future when artificial superintelligence surpasses human intelligence. In his book “The Singularity is Near”, Kurzweil embraced the benefits such a future presented humans: “Our sole responsibility is to produce something smarter than we are; any problems beyond that are not ours to solve.”

Yet, less than 2 decades later, technologists, futurists, and philosophers are now envisaging potentially catastrophic futures for our species. The conversion from the utopian to a dystopian view of the future has roots in the development of the Fermi paradox, i.e. why, despite high estimates for the existence of extraterrestrial life, is there no clear and obvious evidence for it?

One theory gaining wider acceptance is that there could be a Great Filter: a barrier preventing intelligent colonisation of the universe. Life may be unable to evolve into advanced civilisations through being unable to manage technologies that manifest existential risks. This is evident with existing innovations: nuclear weapons, biotechnology, nanotechnology, poorly designed AI etc.

The risks proliferate when such technology becomes cheap and ubiquitous such that we can all harness great power: it is the democratisation of mass destruction. A range of technologies that can do irreparable harm could be within each individual’s grasp, and our society has enough individuals willing to inflict such harm.

So, technology has the potential to destroy us rather than liberate us. How should we mitigate this potential future if it is enabled by continued advances, decentralisation, and increased freedoms?

In this interview, I talk to Software Engineer and Author Vijay Boyapati. We discuss the Fermi paradox and the Great Filter, whether solutions involve centralisation and reducing freedoms, if society is best served by democracy, and the inevitable need for humans to escape the earth.

This episode’s sponsors:
Gemini - Buy Bitcoin instantly
BlockFi - The future of Bitcoin financial services
Sportsbet.io - Online sportsbook & casino that accepts Bitcoin
Casa - The leading provider of Bitcoin multisig key security.
Ledger - State of the art Bitcoin hardware wallet
Compass Mining - Bitcoin mining & hosting
LVL - Bank on Bitcoin
BCB Group - Global digital financial Services

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WBD457 - Show Notes

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If you enjoy The What Bitcoin Did Podcast you can help support the show by doing the following:

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Beginner’s Guide #16: The Future of Bitcoin with Jeremy Welch

Mr Obnoxious

03/10/20 • -1 min

Location: Skype
Date: Friday, 6th March

Welcome to the Beginner's Guide to Bitcoin.

Bitcoin can be intimidating for beginners. The protocol is complicated, the community can be aggressive and unforgiving, silly mistakes can lose you money, and it is easy to succumb to altcoin marketing.

Bitcoin does though, offer you the opportunity to hold a new type of monetary asset, one which can't be seized by the government and is censorship resistance and It has the potential to change the way the world.

The goal of What Bitcoin Did has always been about making things simple; there are no stupid questions, and the show is here to help beginners navigate this new world. To kick off 2020, we are launching a special series to help beginners understand Bitcoin. We will be looking at the basics from breaking down the protocol to explaining the economics and discussing the potential societal shift.

Beginner’s Guide Part 16 - The Future of Bitcoin with Jeremy Welch

In just 11 years, Bitcoin has already achieved so much:
- The price has grown from $1 equal to 1,309.03 BTC in 2009 to $7,950 per Bitcoin (at time of writing), having peaked at $20k in 2017.
- Market capitalisation is nearly $150 billion, and Bitcoin is now on the radar of investors globally.
- A phenomenal ~ 110Exahash secures the network.
- Transactions are regularly well over 300k per day.

Bitcoin is the most decentralised and censorship-resistant currency in the world.

A lot has happened in a short space of time, but what will the future hold for Bitcoin? There are still many challenges for Bitcoin, whether that is scaling, enhancing privacy or UX and ease of use. At the moment, Bitcoin is still for the relatively tech-savvy.

While Bitcoin has been met with either scepticism or fear by governments, in general, there has been little action taken to disincentive people from owning using it. If adoption continues to grow, will the world powers enforce stricter regulations?

In Part 16 of the Beginner’s Guide to Bitcoin I talk to Jeremy Welch to discuss the future of Bitcoin. We get into how governments and central banks will react as Bitcoin poses more of a threat, and if we will see hyperbitcoinisation.

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WBD201 Show Notes: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/beginners-guide-16-the-future-of-bitcoin-with-jeremy-welch

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If you enjoy The What Bitcoin Did Podcast you can help support the show my doing the following:

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Share the show and episodes with your friends and famil...

Holly Randall on Porn, Censorship and Bitcoin

Mr Obnoxious

12/10/19 • -1 min

Location: Los Angeles
Date: Monday, 25th Nov
Project: hollyrandall.com
Role: Pornographer

Holly Randall is a second-generation pornographer and the daughter of Suze Randall, the first female staff photographer for both Playboy and Hustler. In 1998, at the age of 20, Holly became a photographer for the family-run website suze.net.

Having worked in the industry for 20 years, Holly has experienced the porn industry pre and post-internet and witnessed how the industry has adapted to the growth in free online content.

Despite porn being legal, like others in the adult industry, Holly faces a constant battle with financial censorship. Banks regularly close accounts, credit cards are often rejected, payment operators freeze accounts and standard business services such as employee insurance can be hard to get.

With its censorship resistance, trustless and decentralised nature, Bitcoin is a natural fit to help the adult industry solve problems of financial censorship; however, as of now, it is a niche solution for the tech-savvy.

In this interview, I talk to pornographer Holly Randall about censorship. We discuss how the industry has changed, financial censorship, whether Bitcoin can be a solution and the misconceptions and misrepresentations of adult performers.

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If you enjoy The What Bitcoin Did Podcast you can help support the show my doing the following:

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If 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 Bitcoin Football Club with Peter McCormack & Dominic Frisby

Mr Obnoxious

01/19/22 • 97 min

“Most football clubs stand for one thing, which is winning... we stand for a little bit more, we stand for financial literacy. Which I think is super important in the world of football because most clubs operate like they haven’t got any fucking idea about financial literacy.”
— Peter McCormack

Location: London
Date: Thursday 13th January
Company: Real Bedford
Role: Chairman

For years I have wanted to buy a football club in Bedford and get them in the football league. Now it’s a reality as I have agreed to acquire Bedford FC and set up the first Bitcoin standard football club: Real Bedford. And, it’s thanks to Bitcoin and its amazing community.

There are two prime motivations. Firstly I want an opportunity to play my part and help spread the wider exposure, education, and adoption of Bitcoin. There are many great people I’ve been fortunate to interview over these past few years who have provided real value to the ecosystem.

Secondly, I want to give something back to my hometown where I still live: Bedford. Like many small towns throughout the UK and around the world, it has gone through various waves of growth and contraction that have tested its identity. A football club that’s able to compete at the highest levels could provide a positive focal point for the town and put it firmly back on the map.

Don’t be fooled into thinking this isn’t without major challenges. I have never run a football club before, we’re 9 leagues below the Premier League, I have other significant commitments, and there’s widespread incredulity about my ambitions. But, this is a boys’ own dream, and I want to take you along for the ride.

In this interview, Bitcoin advocate and good friend of What Bitcoin Did Dominic Frisby talks to Peter McCormack, Chairman of Real Bedford. We discuss the dream to help Bitcoin and Bedford, learning to run a football club, and documenting the adventure.

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WBD452 - Show Notes

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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 contribute

Make a tip:
Bitcoin: 3FiC6w7eb3dkcaNHMAnj39ANTAkv8Ufi2S
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Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong on Bitcoin

Mr Obnoxious

07/24/20 • -1 min

“There is really no excuse I can give you, so all I can tell you is we make mistakes as well, and a lot of building a company is trying to learn from mistakes and just get better over time.”
— Brian Armstrong

Location: Zoom
Date: Thursday 23rd July
Company: Coinbase
Role: Co-Founder & CEO

Coinbase is amongst the largest and most established Bitcoin companies in the world, and it has secured itself as one of the most accessible places to buy and sell Bitcoin. Its latest round of funding valued Coinbase at $8.1 billion, and there are rumours that the company plans to be listed on a U.S stock exchange later this year.

Forbes recently called Coinbase ‘Bitcoin’s Guardian Angel’ and claimed it would make ‘crypto safe for all’; however, the view within the Bitcoin community is quite different. Coinbase has come under heavy scrutiny in recent years, most notably for their $13.5 million acquisition of blockchain intelligence company Neutrino. Following this acquisition, it was revealed that the Neutrino founders were involved in the Hacking Team, a team of people who reportedly sold surveillance tools to governments, including authoritarian regimes. With this news, #deletecoinbase was trending on bitcoin twitter, putting CEO Brian Armstrong under considerable pressure to fire the team.

More recently, Coinbase again sparked controversy when The Block reported that the company agreed to sell blockchain analysis software to The Secret Service and the IRS, and was planning a similar deal with the DEA.

In this interview, I talk to Brian Armstrong, CEO and Co-Founder of Coinbase. We discuss the difficulties in running a large startup, regulations, the Neutrino acquisition & providing analytics to government agencies with Coinbase Analytics.

This episode’s sponsors:

Kraken - The best place to buy, sell & trade Bitcoin
BlockFi - The future of Bitcoin financial services
Sportsbet.io - Online sportsbook & casino that accepts Bitcoin
Casa - The leading provider of Bitcoin multisig key security.

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WBD244 Show Notes: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/coinbase-ceo-on-bitcoin-with-brian-armstrong

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If you enjoy The What Bitcoin Did Podcast you can help support the show my doing the following:

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Beginner’s Guide #7: Bitcoin's Monetary Policy with Dan Held

Mr Obnoxious

01/24/20 • -1 min

Location: Skype
Date: Wednesday, 22nd January
Project: Kraken
Role: Head of Business Development

Welcome to the Beginner's Guide to Bitcoin.

Beginners Guide Part 7 - Bitcoin's Monetary Policy with Dan Held

In our current economic system, currency is issued by the central banks. As fiat (government-issued money) is no longer backed by gold or any other scarce asset these central banks are able to print, or issue money at will.

As more and more money is printed and enters circulation, the money you hold in your bank account becomes a smaller percentage of the total supply and therefore loses value. This by de-facto promotes spending rather than saving and by many, is seen as a flaw in the financial system.

When Satoshi released the Bitcoin protocol, it offered an alternative to this system: scarce digital money. Satoshi gave Bitcoin a fixed supply of 21 million Bitcoins. He also designed an issuance schedule of 50BTC every ~10 minutes which is cut in half every 210,000 blocks (~4 years).

The exact number of the total supply of Bitcoin is not important and it doesn’t matter that the issuance schedule is designed exactly as it is, what is crucial is that this monetary policy can’t be changed.

These rules are part of the Bitcoin protocol and can not be amended or changed without a hard fork. Social consensus for a change like this would almost certainly never happen and Bitcoiners can be confident that their Bitcoin holdings will not lose value to do inflation.

In Part 7 of the Bitcoin Beginner’s Guide, I talk to Dan Held Bitcoin OG and Director of Business Development at Kraken to look at Bitcoin’s monetary policy. We discuss how the economy works, the 21 million hard cap, the release schedule and block rewards.

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Bitcoin: A View From The Left with Ben Arc

Mr Obnoxious

01/21/22 • 95 min

“Bitcoin is a commons, a monetary commons… a shared resource which people can use and then it’s within their interests to keep that resource going and nurture that resource and help it to grow - and that’s what Bitcoin is; and if any private interests try to co-opt Bitcoin…then ‘Bitcoiners’ attack it.”
— Ben Arc

Location: London
Date: Thursday 13th January
Project: LNbits, NOSTR
Role: Bitcoin and free open source software advocate

What are the politics of Bitcoin? Satoshi in a post in 2008 said “It's very attractive to the libertarian viewpoint if we can explain it properly.” And, it certainly has garnered a strong libertarian following, principally because of its unique utility to undermine governments’ control of money.

However, Bitcoiners are a broad church. The original cypherpunks philosophy was predicated on anarchist ideals, to work outside of government controls. This attitude is analogous to a wide variety of political philosophies, including those on the left who feel disenfranchised by the current global capitalist hegemony.

There is a strong and growing group of left-leaning Bitcoiners, who see the protocol as a radical means of achieving a fairer society where the levers of power and organisation are controlled by a community rather than elites.

This may trigger a powerful section in Bitcoin whose views are antithetical to those on the left. And yet, this broad range of communities with divergent dogmas have all enabled Bitcoin to develop its critical mass. This is because early adopters viewing Bitcoin as a philosophy, whatever that philosophy may be, has inspired ardent advocacy and robust hodling behaviour.

It surely underlines the genius of Bitcoin’s protocol if those with seemingly divergent opinions can all lay claim to the benefits of the technology. Furthermore, history has shown that robust societies are ones where ideas are debated, tested, and then synthesized. If we can do this as a community we have a real opportunity to lay the foundations for a more open and fair society.

In this interview, I talk to Ben Arc, an industrious Bitcoin and free open source software advocate. We discuss the attraction of Bitcoin to those on the left, Bitcoin as a commons for society, developing open source applications to take on big tech, and Marxism.

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WBD453 - Show Notes

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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 contribute

Make a tip:
Bitcoin: 3FiC6w7eb3dkcaNHMAnj39ANTAkv8Ufi2S
QR Codes: Bitcoin
If you do send a tip then please email me so that I can say thank you

Subscribe on iTunes |

Beginner’s Guide #13: The Lightning Network with Jack Mallers

Mr Obnoxious

02/21/20 • -1 min

Location: Las Vegas
Date: Thursday, 20th February
Project: Zap & Strike
Role: Founder

Welcome to the Beginner's Guide to Bitcoin.

Beginners Guide Part 13 - The Lightning Network with Jack Mallers

Bitcoin produces a 1mb block on average every 10 minutes. The block size and time limitations are essential for keeping the blockchain small enough so that anyone is realistically able to run a full node, keeping Bitcoin decentralised.

The block size limit, however, does present a scalability issue, as there is a maximum number of transactions that can be broadcast in each block. The limit led to an acrimonious scaling debate, lasting years which resulted in a fork of the Bitcoin protocol and the arrival of Bitcoin Cash. With Bitcoin, layer two solutions have been hailed as the best way to solve scaling.

The Lightning Network is a Layer 2 solution that runs on top of Bitcoin. By allowing users to create channels, Lightning allows for P2P micropayments that settle almost instantly and at a low cost.

The Lightning Network offers other benefits such as improved privacy because the details of Lightning payments aren't on the public blockchain.

The Lightning Network is still a relatively new protocol, as such, it can be intimidating to newcomers as the user experience has some key differences from transacting on the basechain.

In Part 13 of the Beginner's Guide to Bitcoin, I talk to Jack Mallers, the founder of Zap Lightning Wallet and Strike. We discuss the Lightning Network, the scaling debate, fees, settlement and the future of the protocol.

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If you enjoy The What Bitcoin Did Podcast you can help support the show my doing the following:

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Coronavirus Lockdown in Italy with Giacomo Zucco

Mr Obnoxious

03/17/20 • -1 min

Location: Skype
Date: Friday, 13th March
Project: BHB Network
Role: Director

COVID-19 continues to spread around the world. 169,717 people are now infected, and the death toll stands at 6,518. The virus is highly contagious, making containment incredibly tricky. As the seriousness of the situation escalates, countries around the world are implementing strict controls on movement and contact.

The COVID-19 coronavirus originated in China, where the number of cases has now risen to over 80,000. As the virus has taken hold, the Chinese Communist Party has implemented draconian measures. Despite criticism, the aggressive use of quarantine appears to have been effective in reducing the spread of infections. The number of reported daily new cases in China has dropped from almost 2,000 per day a few weeks ago, to less than 20 at the time of writing.

Italy now has the highest number of cases outside of China, with over 25,000 testing positive. A nationwide lockdown is in effect, with police and soldiers enforcing the quarantine conditions, and on the 15th of March, the EU recorded the highest number of deaths in a single day so far.

Giacomo Zucco is a Bitcoiner who is currently under lockdown in Italy. In this interview, he explains what life is like on lockdown, the measures that have been put in place, how he thinks the governments around the world have dealt with this pandemic and why he believes centralised planning is poorly suited for dealing with the crisis.

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WBD203 Show Notes: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/coronavirus-lockdown-in-italy-with-giacomo-zucco

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If you enjoy The What Bitcoin Did Podcast you can help support the show my doing the following:

Become a Patron and get access to shows early or help contribute

Leave a review on iTunes

Share the show and episodes with your friends and family

Subscribe to the newsletter on my website

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If you are interested in sponsoring the show, you can

Show more best episodes

Mr Obnoxious

Peter McCormack

Top 10 Mr Obnoxious Episodes

Pierre Rochard on Bitcoin Adoption Hurdles

Is There Life After Democracy? with Vijay Boyapati

Beginner’s Guide #16: The Future of Bitcoin with Jeremy Welch

Holly Randall on Porn, Censorship and Bitcoin

The Bitcoin Football Club with Peter McCormack & Dominic Frisby

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong on Bitcoin

Beginner’s Guide #7: Bitcoin's Monetary Policy with Dan Held

Bitcoin: A View From The Left with Ben Arc

Beginner’s Guide #13: The Lightning Network with Jack Mallers

Coronavirus Lockdown in Italy with Giacomo Zucco

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