How Peter McCormack is turning an unknown town into a Bitcoin hub

You might have heard of Hollywood actor Ryan Reynolds and his decision to buy a Welsh football club.

Why did you want to purchase a soccer team? Well, first of all, we call it football. Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny have become the new and unlikely owners of Wrexham football club.

Let me tell you about how a bitcoiner from Bedford near London has bought his local football club and he's turning his town into the capital of bitcoin in the uk.

My primary mission is to raise up my town. Opportunity and success for my town.

Andy Corbyn gives Rael Bedford a crucial lead.

Welcome to real Bedford. It's pronounced real, not real because the owner, Peter McCormack has Champions League dreams.

Could raise a billion and I would get this club in the Premier League in nine years because you just, you have no money to do it. I could build a 200 million pound stadium if I did a shitcoin. It's really tempting.

The town of Bedford is small, insignificant even at just 180,000 people. It's one of many commuter towns surrounding London, the financial hub of the UK and Europe. But what would happen if you could inject investment into this small local economy? Quite struck by how many shops are closed on the streets of Bedford. Must have walked past seven or eight shops on the high street, all of them closed. Kind of wild. Inflation here is nat good. Debenhams used to be one of the UK's leading high street stores. It's been closed now for years and in Bedford they haven't replaced it. What do you make of Bedford right now in terms of. I mean this shop has closed down, that shop's closed down, everything's empty.

It's a real shame really. They're spending a lot of money sort of making it look pretty, but there's not much going on inside, so it's a shame.

What do you make of the situation right now in Bedford? Like there's a lot of closed shops. No, it's so bad and like for people like at a younger age, it's like really bad as well because there's nothing much to do. You grew up in Bedford. What do you make of the town right now? What do you think the direction of the town is?

Well, it's still, it's still got a bit of life to it, but the town center has dwindled. It's everybody shopping online and the whole Covid thing, it kind of killed town centers everywhere, but still seeking new people walking around. It's true. I'm optimistic things will get better.

What do you make of, like the vibe or the atmosphere right now in, in Bedford, very downhill with what we noticed gone. All. All the towns. As soon as they've gone downhill, a lot of shops closed down, a lot more homeless on the streets, drug addicts. So it's not the same as it was since we've lived up this way.

So everyone's going through hard times, you know, it's going to be great. They say they want to open shops, we want to attract more business, but everyone's just down, depressed with everything going on.

Bitcoin in the United Kingdom has had a tough time of late. The unelected Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been pushing CBDCs, or central bank digital currencies. Inflation is the highest among most northern European countries. And rail staff, doctors, teachers, you name the public sector worker, most of them are on strike right now. Can bitcoin really grow into a meaningful tool for change or will it fade into irrelevance? Because here in Bedford, bitcoin could be gaining a strong foothold. It's becoming a firm fixture on the bitcoin world tour alongside El Salvador's bitcoin beach, Lugano and Miami. The market town has hosted some of the biggest names in bitcoin, including Jeff Booth, author of the Price of Tomorrow, Lawrence Lepard, James Lavish, and Of course, Peter McCormack himself, the local boy.

There was a time where I was looking to move to Texas. Yeah, in the time I was looking to move to London. And I was thinking, well, you know what, why don't I actually just try and do something in my hometown? My friends are here. That's where I'm from. And so, yeah, and I think in doing this, I've come to really love the town because people have got behind the project, really supported me. I mean, all the volunteers every week and come out and help all the people who come and support us, you know, that makes me love it more.

Peter McCormack is proudly from Bedford and he wants to orange pill or introduce bitcoin to his town. He's doing it through his podcast, the most popular podcast in bitcoin, through the local football club. And now, recently, through the purchase of a bar, he wants to raise up his town and put Bedford on the map. What does your ideal Bedford look like? What's your vision for Bedford?

Economically prosperous. Put the team in the very need, but just economically prosperous. Yeah, we'll have four or five hundred people coming into here today, flying from all over the world to this, to Bedford, spending money in this town. The swan Hotel is fully booked out. They're going to the pubs, they're going to the bars, they're going to the shops. They are. Tens of thousands of pounds will be spent this weekend in Bedford because of this. That's driving economic opportunity. New businesses will be created from that. So, yeah, I just want Bedford to be economically prosperous.

Yeah. But it's not just an economic day. Right. The one thing I've taken away from, I mean, I was here at the first game of season and funny enough about the last home game this season. Yeah, there's a real sense of community that's been built here. On top of that, there have not been other sort of things like the youth team, the women's team, like. Yeah. Exist prior to.

No, the women's team did. They existed both for girls and ladies, but we partnered with them, provided them with kits. They're now going to come under our management next season. So there'll be rail Bedford ladies.

Okay.

And we will have 200 young girls every week going out, training under our brand. Give us another year, we'll have a youth. We're probably going to have a disability team next year. And that's why I need a new facility. I need to raise seven and a half million quid, hopefully from Bitcoiners, where I can build a ground, three training pitches, a gym and a rehabilitation centre. Have a centre for football and excellence in the town where people can come all day, every day and play football.

Are you familiar with the story of a local lad called Peter McCormack who bought the football club in Redford? No, no, I don't know anything about that, Peter McCormick.

No.

Does real Bedford mean anything to you?

Never heard of it.

Do you know about the football teams here? Have you heard of Real Bedford before?

No, no, no.

Do you know there's a town called Real Bedford? Does that mean anything to you? No, no.

Yeah, I know.

Raya Bedford.

You've been to the games? Like, to see who matches? I've been to one of their games.

Like once or twice, just to see what's going on.

Is that the one that's now called Real Bedford? Did you hear about this takeover? Yeah, yeah. Have you been to a game? No, not yet. Are you familiar with the football scene here?

Bedford Town?

Yeah, Bedford Town. Okay. What about Real Bedford?

I've heard of Real Bedford. They're doing pretty well after doing that takeover sort of thing they got. So I don't know who's taken over, but they're doing much better than Bedford Town.

To be honest, I was Getting off the train earlier today and I was like, if it wasn't for bitcoin and it wasn't for PETA, there's no way that I would have come here. There's no reason I would have come here. The world famous bitcoin beach or El Zonte in El Salvador put the tiny Latin American nation on the world map. Peter McCormack was one of the first bitcoin advocates to visit the town and he's even interviewed the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, twice. But can you really apply the success of bitcoin beach in El Salvador to Bedford? Jeff, welcome to Bedford.

Thank you.

It's your second time here though, right?

First time here.

First.

Is there anything?

Yep.

Well, yesterday was my first time here.

Okay. And had you heard of Bedford before? Bitcoin?

Before bitcoin? No, I haven't heard of Bedford until being the Coin and Bartlett team.

Okay, fantastic. And of course you wrote one of the is becoming a go to bitcoin book, even though it's not about bitcoin, the price of tomorrow. And you also manage a fund Ego death capital. What do you make of the current sort of economic scene, globally speaking right now, before we come to Bedford?

Okay. It's playing out exactly like the book predicted it would play out. AI is playing out like the book predicted AI would play out. And the corresponding problem in the world, because those two systems are at polar opposites, they're playing out exactly as predicted in the book, unfortunately. And bitcoin is. Is essentially affixed to the system, outside of the system. So it's a transition to a new system.

Does the word bitcoin mean anything to you? Bitcoin.

Bitcoin. I don't understand.

What does the word bitcoin mean to you, if anything?

Avoid.

Avoid. And what about bitcoin? Does bitcoin mean anything to you? And what does the word bitcoin mean to you?

Bitcoin coin. What is bitcoin? What is a bitcoin?

Isn't it a currency? Yeah, it's a currency. No, nailed it. That's good. Yeah. Okay, cool.

I've heard of bitcoin. I don't really get how it works and all that stuff. But like, I've heard that if you can invest in bitcoin, you can make some serious money off it.

Does the word bitcoin mean anything to you?

I know bitcoin.

Is it? Yeah. What's bitcoin?

It's.

To put it into words, it's basically computer generated currency. It's not Tangible in your hand, but it is. Trade it as currency.

Yeah, yeah. Does bitcoin mean anything to you?

Digital currency? I don't use it. I don't intend to use it at the minute until it's like more safe in a way. Your details can be stolen and stuff.

What does the word bitcoin mean to you? Stocks investing. Do you have any bitcoin? No, but I have had an interest.

In wanting to invest.

But how can you sort of fix this disconnect? How can you get more people to make that leap into doing what Peter's doing, doing what you're doing?

I think it's just time people start to realize it and it's a. They like. The bitcoin rabbit hole is deep, right? Is really deep. And if you're at the top of that rabbit hole, the first thing you probably do is hold it, right? A lot of people, the next thing they do is go and buy some other shitcoins, right? And then they come back to bitcoin and they go. And then they start to understand it more. Some people go down that path really quickly, some people go down slowly. But eventually I think it's just. To me, I think it's a time thing. When you're spending more time in the world you want to see, you meet more people that are aligned in the world that you want to see. And that's why I keep saying on these podcasts, I can't believe I get to do what I get to do. Right? Yes, we're going to make a ton of money. But besides the money you're, you're meeting like, I get to spend my time with the most brilliant entrepreneurs and most brilliant people building the rails of the future. It's just I do it for free. All places start out as nothing, right?

Yeah, the guy's on time.

Yeah, exactly. And in an economic, an economic growth like what bitcoin could do here and drive attention and more and more people, it emerges, a bunch of other businesses flock into there and it creates and it creates something that would look different. Just like El Zonte. It looks different than it probably did 10 years ago.

Much to the amusement or bemusement of local fans, Bitcoin people from all over the world are coming to Bedford to watch this local team play. Even non footballers are keen to meet up. It's an unexpected collision of two vastly different worlds. Bitcoin and football. Behind me, Ben Aert is putting together a bitcoin point of sale device with things he brought with him from home. We're in the football clubhouse, the real Bedford. He's showing people how to set it all up. The game is happening right behind us. We're in the second half. It's five nil, six nil. Do you even care?

Yeah, I mean, I don't really follow.

Football, I'll be honest.

Joe, why are you here?

Well, I'm here for the bitcoin. And actually, I will say that obviously I love Peter and I think what he's done with the club is fantastic. Have you seen that corridor with the death metal corridor?

It's amazing.

And I imagine these away teams coming in, like walking through this corridor of graffiti and skulls and death metal. And it's such an UN football experience. In any real world use case of implementing Bitcoin, then there's all these really interesting use cases and opportunities to build interesting software which we weren't aware of before. So I've never engaged with, you know, building software for a football team accepting bitcoin. So now we have that opportunity. So that's very exciting to me.

Hitchcock. Hitchcock lays one back forwards.

That is a handball.

But Brown is there to tap it home. I think they just scored, whereas that's not so exciting. You have a connection to Bedford.

I grew up here.

Yeah, you grew up here.

Okay.

What does it mean for you to see the local team winning the league, getting promoted?

That's great. I think it's really good that this team is going from. Going from nothing, really, and getting it. And I think it's great. It's also kind of bringing the crowds out, you know, getting people coming together from, you know, Bedford, who is quite a cool town, you know, but having got maybe the recognition from the other club. So it's good to have this club now kind of coming along. And also what Pete's doing is great with all the kind of different, you know, approach to it, I think, you know, having a look at how it's a smaller league team but with decent sort of sponsorship behind it and understanding how to market it and do things properly. So fans want to come down because good atmosphere. There's, you know, things going on outside of just the football. So it's really good.

The story here is that you have somewhat of a pantomime villain in cases of people, Cormac, who sort of comes in and radicalizes everything, changes everything, and everyone automatically goes against it. That's just British culture and nature, isn't it, really? And slowly he's turning the favor and support of locals and. And the general public and their understanding. In a similar vein, to what he's done with bitcoin. Really, it's a very similar sort of strategy of sort of. More and more people are learning that this is a good thing. This is a very good thing that's going on right now.

And, you know, it's great to see bitcoin coming to my town. You know, I've been involved with cryptocurrencies for about three, four years now, and to see some of the faces that I hear, as well as Pete, of being here and, like, back in this.

Football club, it's massive.

It's massive.

And it just makes me feel really proud to be from Bedford and makes me really excited, to be honest.

I just saw you showing someone how to use bitcoin from the back of your car in the real Bedford car park. Why? What was going on there? So it was a business owner who's interested in accepting bitcoin payments and it's a completely new concept to him. So it so happens that I happen to have a point of sale device in the back of the car. So I just ran through the options with him and the process by which he could accept bitcoin payments. And he's. He's really keen. So I'm really excited for him and he's really excited for the community, the business community that he works with as well. So hopefully we'll pick up a few leads and we'll see a few businesses in Bedfordshire start to accept bitcoin soon. What do you understand about bitcoin?

I have some. I don't understand it at all. And I was quite surprised to find out yesterday that bitcoin, Peter, I think his name was, was sponsoring the team and I didn't know anything about that.

And yet you're from Bedford and.

Yeah, I'm from Bedford. So I was told to go and Google it, who Peter is in bitcoin and he will come up and find out more if I wanted to.

The bitcoin price over the past two years has steadily trended down as the bear market rages on. The focus for real Bedford in this environment is to not only win the league, but manage the treasury and retain those important bitcoin sponsors. This is part of the problem of running a business with bitcoin in mind. Right. It is incredibly volatile and when it goes down, it goes down hard. How hard has that been, managing this club with sponsors which they're all actually alive today, or this one says today, maybe not Compass.

So they agreed to sponsorship between the board one. So that was great. So I plan the Year ahead. So I've got my entire budget for next season in the bank.

Done. Okay.

So what I'm really raising is for the season after.

Yeah.

So every single year, I'm a year ahead. And therefore, if there is a bit of difficulty, then I've got a year to blame for that.

When your business and you accept cryptocurrencies, your customer base expands massively. You know, you're attracting more people, which is why there's so many international people here already, because they're interested in cryptocurrency, they're interested in bitcoin, which is bringing them here to Bedford.

The goal is to communicate bitcoin to the country. It's a bit like El Zonte was the seed that turned El Salvador into a bitcoin country. I want this to be the seed that makes our country understand and have better regulations towards bitcoin.

I would say when I think about bitcoin, it's. It potentially is the largest country or one of the largest countries today, but it's digital in nature and it's spread out everywhere. So those bitcoiners are very connected and they actually have massive purchasing power that if they started to shift, it would shift the balance of power to bitcoin really quickly. But it's so distributed that it hasn't built really strong network effects locally. And so that local connection and some of those network effects is happening. It's just early in that. And it's early in that because for a long time, all you could do with bitcoin is hold it. There was no lightning. There was no fetty coming on. There was no. There wasn't a whole bunch of other ways to be able to use it. So people just held it. Now there's ways to use it and create an economy around it.

I think, like anywhere there's a bitcoin hub and there's a reason to go and for people to meet in the meat space. Like, exciting things happen. And the thing that's happening with this football club and every time there's an opportunity to use bitcoin in the wild, actually use it, paying for goods and services, then there's a whole bunch of cool things we can build off it as a use case. So I get super excited when anywhere adopts bitcoin rail.

Bedford will play in the league above next year for the 2024 season. That means more money, more prestige, and ultimately even more bitcoin awareness for the town.

I think this is one of these projects whereby I don't think anyone really understood in the start, they're like, whatever. Doesn't make any sense. And I think it's starting to make more and more sense to me.

Board.

Yeah.

I don't think anyone really understood the branding or the name. I think it's starting to make sense now.

Yeah.

Like, I could see it. I see the whole vision. I can see how we can get to the Premier League. It requires hard work, a bit of luck and bitcoin to get behind it and bitcoin to keep doing its thing.