Beyond the Code

Geoff White has spent over a decade at the intersection of technology and organized crime. As Channel 4 News' technology correspondent, he reported on the Snowden leaks, exposed the Talk Talk hack, and dug into fraud across the online dating industry. He's the co-creator of the BBC's Lazarus Heist, a chart-topping podcast on North Korea's hacking operations, and the author of three books — Crime Dot Com, Rinsed, and, for Audible, The Dark Web and AI: Friend or Foe, the latter released back in 2019, well before AI became a household conversation.
In this episode, Geoff joins Yitzy to talk about his path from local newspapers to investigative journalism, the difference between writing a book and building a podcast, and how crypto has genuinely changed the mechanics of money laundering — not made it impossible to trace, but made it faster to move. He also breaks down how his team pieced together 350,000 leaked internal messages from the Conti ransomware gang, translation quirks and all, and gives his take on recent AI-driven hacks, including the Hugging Face/OpenAI incident and the Cold Card wallet exploit — plus why he's skeptical of confident claims about how much AI is actually being used in phishing today.
This episode is brought to you by FirstRead — the AI-powered contract and document tool built for lawyers. Use code BYNDTHECODE10 for 10% off, or sign up here: https://first-read.com/signup?ref=BEYOND2026
In this episode, we cover:
00:00 – Intro: who is Geoff White04:14 – From balloon modeler to investigative journalist09:25 – Going freelance and the leap into book writing11:05 – How book deals and advances actually work13:39 – Researching and writing Crime.com15:05 – Meeting Brett Johnson, the "OG of hacking"17:36 – Books vs. podcasts: what changes in the storytelling24:00 – What the reader knows and when: crafting a true-crime narrative26:18 – Rinsed: has crypto made money laundering easier, or just different?35:37 – Inside The Conti Files: leaked chats, translation chaos, and "the grandmas"42:30 – Personal safety and the risks of covering hackers directly44:22 – Revisiting AI: Friend or Foe, written in 201948:05 – The Hugging Face/OpenAI hack, the Cold Card exploit, and self-custody risk50:45 – Why Geoff won't say "AI phishing is worse" without the data
Connect with Geoff :
https://geoffwhite.tech/ (podcast and audiobook links, book purchases and contact details)

In this episode, we cover CJ Hetherington's path from a self-taught teenager trading crypto in the UK's Lake District to Co-Founder and CEO of Limitless, one of the fastest-growing prediction market platforms built on Base.
CJ walks through his early builds - a gamified NFT protocol, the Atlantis World metaverse — and how a chance conversation led him and his Ukrainian co-founder to raise crypto donations for humanitarian aid within hours of the full-scale invasion, eventually hosting a hackathon inside a bomb shelter with Vitalik Buterin. From there, he traces Limitless's founding in late 2023, why staying outside the Polymarket/Kalshi duopoly has been an advantage, the CFTC review process for US market entry, and why he sees institutional hedging — not sports betting — as the real endgame for prediction markets. We close on what Limitless saw in the data during the World Cup and CJ's read on where the broader crypto market is headed next.
Sponsored by FirstRead — the AI-powered contract review tool built for lawyers who don't have time to read every clause twice. Use code BYNDTHECODE10 for 10% off at ⁠first-read.com/signup?ref=BEYOND2026⁠.

In this episode, we cover Michael Terpin's journey from early internet PR (founding Globe Newswire, working with Motley Fool, Earthlink, and AOL) to becoming one of crypto's earliest and most recognized figures — a path that earned him the nickname "the godfather of crypto" from CNBC, by his account, for his PR work on Ethereum, Tether, and roughly 400 other early projects.
Terpin walks through his "Four Seasons of Bitcoin" framework — his own thesis on how fear-and-greed cycles play out predictably between halvings — and shares his (unverified, forward-looking) outlook on where he believes Bitcoin's cycle lows and highs may land in the years ahead. He also discusses meeting Coinbase's Brian Armstrong at the first Bitcoin conference in 2013, and his book and fund, both built around the Bitcoin Supercycle thesis.
Note: price levels and cycle predictions discussed are Terpin's own analysis and should not be taken as financial advice or confirmed fact.
This episode is brought to you by FirstRead — use code BYNDTHECODE10 for 10% off at first-read.com/signup?ref=BEYOND2026.

In one of the most unique conversations in Beyond the Code history, Yitzy sits down with Reuven "Ruby" Rivlin — the 10th President of the State of Israel — to talk about why, at 86 years old, he's betting on crypto.
Rivlin is now Honorary President of Bitcore Capital, a publicly traded Israeli company building regulated digital financial infrastructure — including a shekel-pegged stablecoin, Bitcoin-backed lending, and what could become Israel's first crypto-native digital bank and have recently entered into a very significant partnership with Lava Network. The company has assembled a team of former senior government officials, regulators, and law enforcement leaders specifically to earn the trust of the Israeli public and regulators alike.
But before all of that, Rivlin was a trial lawyer, a Jerusalem city councilor under Mayor Teddy Kollek, president of Beitar Jerusalem football club, a 30-year Knesset member, Speaker of the Knesset twice, Israel's Communications Minister, and finally — the President of Israel from 2014 to 2021.
In this episode:
Why Rivlin joined Bitcore Capital and what they're actually building
The regulatory challenges facing crypto adoption in Israel
How assembling former chiefs of police, ministers, and regulators is a trust-building strategy — not just optics
His vision for Israel as a leader in the digital financial revolution
Stories from his legal career, the Knesset, Beitar Jerusalem, and his relationships with world leaders
This episode is brought to you by FirstRead — your go-to source for crypto legal and regulatory intelligence.
Get 10% off with code BYNDTHECODE10 at https://first-read.com/signup?ref=BEYOND2026

This episode was recorded live at Consensus Miami 2026.
Jonathan Schmalfeld — known as 'Birdnals' across Crypto Twitter — is Policy Director at The Digital Chamber. He came up doing soft IP litigation, got into crypto around 2015, and eventually turned what he was doing for fun into his full-time work.
We cover the NFT IP moment, what it takes to be a real Web3 lawyer, the knowledge-sharing culture that makes this community unique, and how he went from associate at a major law firm to advocating for the industry in front of Congress and regulators.
---
This episode is sponsored by FirstRead (use BYNDTHECODE10 for 10% off).

This show is hosted by Yitzy Hammer.

Make sure to 'follow' us and click the "alert" button so you don't miss any future episodes.

Check out our new website: www.beyondthecode.fm