BlockSpeak 5 – Mark W. Yushko, Founder Morgan Creek Capital

BlockSpeak 5 is a conversation about the dictators love a crisis.

BlockSpeak 5BlockSpeak 5 is an important contribution to the current debate about the health and economic crisis facing our world in the time of Covid-19 and plague.

As the pandemic approaches its peak in the countries that were first affected, Mark W. Yushko, the founder of Morgan Creek Capital, a $2 billion hedge fund, emerges as a champion of freedom from the settlement of capital.

Yushko, a long-term fan of British culture who believes ‘his IQ goes up 40 points’ every time he has a conversation with an English person, takes his sword to tyrants who often use a crisis to disguise their actions and distract the populace.

Diving deeply into the history of democracy, Yushko begins from the 2008 financial crisis, but also explains how world wars are a key driver of capitalism and the military-industrial complex. He also spells out in very clear language, the danger of Donald Trump, not only to America, but to the rest of the world.

Setting a scene in which he says it is clear that Trump is currently obfuscating the American people in a bid to cancel this year’s November election and stay in power without being re-elected, Yushko also has consoling words.

These lay out the American constitution and the interregnum between the US election in November and the inauguration in January, 2021. This makes it impossible for Trump to stay in power unless the law of the country is changed.

This is powerful stuff from the founder of a multi-billion dollar hedge fund who would ordinarily prosper from a regime such as Trump’s and is an excellent counterweight to those who would say that US capitalists are all cut from the same cloth.

Somewhat different in tone and politics to the previous four episodes in BlockSpeak, this conversation is enlightening in tone and knowledge of the US constitution and the potential conflicts to come..

BlockSpeak 4 – Jonny Fry, CEO Teamblockchain

BlockSpeak 4 features a conversation about the history and future of money.


BlockSpeak 4
BlockSpeak 4 is all about money. When it comes to money, everybody has an opinion on what it is, what it was and what it may turn out to be. Is money value, is currency value, what is currency, what is value?

For those students who may have excellent qualifications in subjects such as sciences, languages or Classics, there are many more who did not receive a single lesson in how money works. The closest many got was ‘home economics’ and that was nebulous at best.

In this informative episode of BlockSpeak, Teamblockchain CEO Jonny Fry not only lays out the case for a blockchain and crypto future, he also gives listeners a crash-course in the power of money and which currencies have held sway over the past 500 years.

According to Fry, we are currently in the time of Dollar and that time may be coming to an end because Fry surmises that the most powerful global currency generally rules the world for 100 years before it is superseded by a new scion.

Before the dollar, the UK Pound was the prevailing wind. The British Empire enabled the UK to be the currency of choice until the end of World War I, when America went into the ascendant.

A century before it was the French Franc, 100 years earlier it was the Dutch guilder and before that the Escudo (Portugal/Spain). As the dollar potentially reaches the end of its ubiquity, what lies head?

Some may some that China’s new digital currency may be the winner, it may even be the incumbent fiat currency of the Yuan/Remnibi or it might just be Bitcoin, only ten years old, but beginning to take centre stage on the, er, world stage.

Fry knows his history, if not the future and BlockSpeak 4, rather like BlockSpeak 3 before it, is an episode to take notes and learn what they didn’t teach at school.

BlockSpeak 2 – Danish Chaudry, Bitcoin.com exchange

BlockSpeak 2 – Danish Chaudhry, MD of Bitcoin.com exchange.


BlockSpeak 2
In this episode of our new video podcast BlockSpeak 2, we speak to the garrulous Danish Chaudry about Bitcoin being a safe haven after stock markets have crashed.

Chaudry runs the Bitcoin.com exchange and is the perfect position to see nuanced changes when it comes to people dealing in cryptocurrencies.

While he notes that Bitcoin’s price has also fallen as Covid-19 decimates stock exchanges before its inevitable sweep across the world’s global population, it has proved itself to be more robust than traditional fiat exchanges.

Chaudry is extremely experienced in the crypto sector having previously been at Skycoin and his stories about spending time with controversial crypto figure John McAfee off the coast of North Carolina at the start of 2019 are enough to make the eyes water.

Not many people can say that they survived a week ‘recreationally’ with McAfee and he is happy to light off the lid of the many myths that surround a man who once threatened to cut off his own cock if Bitcoin didn’t reach a certain price by the end of 2019.

Fortunately for McAfee and according to Chaudry, the former’s appendage is still in place, but unlike the unfortunate story of John and Lorena Bobbitt, he didn’t need to have his reattached. Such are the stories of crypto.

Chaudry is a veteran speaker at many crypto events around the world and is an excellent and clear raconteur. In this exclusive interview with BlockSpeak, his stories extend past the  surreal world of John Mcafee and more interesting areas including his relationship with all of the world’s crypto figures, not least his boss and Bitcoin Jesus Roger Ver.

He’s also a strong believe in the power of crypto and speaks like the visionary he appears to be. A fantastic episode of BlockSpeak 2, now available on all major podcast platforms, including others such as Spotify.

To view previous episodes go to the BlockSpeak page of this website or the main site at www.blockspeak.io

BlockSpeak 1 – Monty Munford, Co-Founder BlockSpeak

Welcome to the first episode of our video podcast BlockSpeak.BlockSpeak

BlockSpeak is a new blockchain and crypto video podcast that interviews the world’s biggest names from marketeers to FinTech to blockchain to Bitcoin Billionaires.

As the pandemic rages and the world moves on its axis very day, it’s vital that we keep talking, even if it’s over a Zoom link rather than face-to-face.

In this episode regular host Monty Munford is himself interviewed by BlockSpeak Co-Founder Jean-Michel Azzopardi to find out what the reasoning is behind the podcast and why it is important that in crazy days an intelligent conversation is vital for our sociability and sanity.

Munford reflects on his career as a tech journalist for the past decade and speaking at more than 200 global events as an emcee, moderator, panelist and keynote speaker at prestigious events around the world, focusing on technology change, good and bad, current or emerging.

He has interviewed on stage leading icons such as Kim Kardashian, Steve Wozniak (twice), Gary Vaynerchuk, John McAfee, Brock Pierce, Brian Solis and many others in cities as diverse as Beirut, Moscow, Vienna, Nairobi, Johannesburg and Hanoi.

He was previously a weekly tech columnist for Forbes in New York, the Telegraph in the UK and continues to write regularly for the BBC and The Economist.

He is also the founder of tech consultancy Mob76 that helps leading companies raise their profile and he publishes a Google News-verified blog, Mob76 Outlook, which you’re reading now.

BlockSpeak has the initials of BS, but this podcast is the opposite of the ‘other’ BS. Guests are encouraged to come out of their comfort zone and engage with Munford and a discerning audience.

Nobody knows what this pandemic has in store, but BlockSpeak will keep people in touch with the world and ensuring that the conversation goes on.