Interview location: Tokyo
Interview date: Saturday 16th Feb, 2019
Company: Mt. Gox
Role: CEO

The shadow of Mt. Gox still hangs over Bitcoin some five years after it collapsed. At the time it held 7% of all Bitcoin in circulation and was the primary exchange for Bitcoin traders. It was reported that 850,000 Bitcoins had been stolen, of which 750,000 were customer coins and 100,000 were owned by Mt. Gox, though 200,000 were later found.

In the five years since, more and more information, research and analysis has pointed at a chaotic operation with poor security procedures, yet opinions range. Some label Mark anything from incompetent to a straight up fraudster while others sympathise with the challenges faced by running the worlds first Bitcoin exchange.

In this interview, I talk to Mark about the collapse of Mt. Gox, how he acquired it from Jed McCaleb, the process of civil rehabilitation and how Brock Pierce and Coinlab are holding up the distribution of funds to the creditors.

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Interview location: San Francisco
Interview date: Wednesday 30th Jan, 2019
Company: Stellar
Role: Cofounder

In February 2014 Mt. Gox suspended trading and filed for bankruptcy after approximately 850,000 Bitcoins were stolen, at the time, valued at more than $450m. At the time of its demise it was being run by Mark Karpelès who had acquired the site from Jed McCaleb in 2011.

In this interview I talk to Jed about the creation of Mt. Gox, the handover to Mark Karpelès and what responsibility he shares for its collapse.

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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

Make a tip:
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Interview location: London
Interview date: Thursday 7th Feb, 2019
Company: Chaincode Labs
Role: CEO

What is Bitcoin? Is it digital gold? Is it money?

Whoever I put this question to, the answer always changes but one thing that is consistent is that it always retains to technology and value. Perhaps Bitcoin is therefore many things which come together to create a new type of financial infrastructure.

In this episode, I talk with Bitcoin Core developer, Matt Corallo. We discuss what makes Bitcoin work, covering topics such as the Lightning Network, fungibility and inflation. We also talk about issues important to Matt such as BetterHash and adoption.

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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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Interview location: Skype
Interview date: Friday 8th Feb, 2019
Company: ABRA
Role: CEO

The dot-com bubble burst when companies were unable to deliver on the expected promise of a boom in e-commerce. Companies raised too much money and were unable to drive the sales volume which supported their ambitious infrastructure and share price.

Out of the ashes, new, unexpected business models around search and social rose up, creating some of the most valuable companies in the world.

The crypto bubble burst in 2018, with speculation unable to maintain the rapid growth in the value of cryptocurrencies. Use cases for payments were limited, and companies were unable to ship projects which attracted significant users.

Out of this bubble, we are starting to see new companies and business models which are attracting customers and creating value. One of these companies is ABRA, which is using the unique features of Bitcoin to create a global trading platform for currencies, stocks and ETFs.

In this interview, I talk with ABRA CEO, Bill Barhydt. We discuss ABRA’s recent announcement of their new stock and ETF trading product, the complexity of building a global bank and why ABRA is built on Bitcoin.

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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

Make a tip:
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Interview location: Skype
Interview date: Sunday 3rd Feb, 2019

What is a scam in crypto? Is it the explicit decision to defraud investors by raising funds for a project you have no intention to build? Does it include projects where the founders make claims to be developing technology which they are not sure they can create? Should it include altcoins which are similar to Bitcoin but have little chance of success?

The term scam is thrown around regularly in the industry. Hardcore Bitcoiners may claim that anything which is not Bitcoin is a scam while others will defend altcoins as part of a free market for money.

In this interview I talk with JW Weatherman about the projects he believes are scams, why it is so prevalent in the crypto industry, and we also talk about his course 10 Hours of Bitcoin, a primer to help onboard newcomers to why Bitcoin is so important.

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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

Make a tip:
Bitcoin: 3FiC6w7eb3dkcaNHMAnj39ANTAkv8Ufi2S
QR Codes: Bitcoin | Ethereum | Litecoin | Monero | ZCash | Ripplecoin
If you do send a tip then please email me so that I can say thank you

Subscribe on iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | TuneIn | RSS Feed

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Follow me on Twitter Personal | Twitter Podcast | Instagram | Medium | YouTube

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.