Hi! Welcome to my personal website.
I am a seasoned storyteller, thought leader, and marketer with over six years' experience in blockchain and web3. I publish the newsletter #w3w, which offers weekly insights and headlines about decentralization.
I have worked extensively in marketing and content creation for diverse industry stakeholders, including organizations developing new layer-1 chains, decentralized app developers, nonprofits, and press.
During the COVID pandemic, I served as Head of Content & Writer Development for Capsule Social's censorship-resistant platform Blogchain, built on the NEAR protocol. Previously, I did freelance marketing work for the Telos Foundation and Dispatch Labs, each of which built and launched its own dapp-focused blockchain network.
My collaboration with Dispatch led to co-authoring and editing two whitepapers for the World Economic Forum on blockchain applications in the global supply chain. One of these whitepapers served as a toolkit for organizations embarking on new blockchain implementations.
Before diving into blockchain, I co-founded and served as Chief Product Officer of Roscoe Labs, a company focused on mobile news video. I wrote the initial product requirements, managed a remote team of engineers to develop the beta version, and pitched the venture to investors on Sand Hill Road and in New York.
My interest in the intersection of news and technology stems from a decade-long career as a newspaper reporter. I started in the Virginia suburbs with the Washington Post before becoming a prize-winning markets reporter at the Wall Street Journal from 1999 to 2010.
At the Journal, I covered major global events, including the 2008 market crash and the 9/11 attacks, for which the staff collectively won a Pulitzer Prize. I also investigated President Clinton’s controversial pardon of fugitive trader Marc Rich, chronicled oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens' return during crude oil's first surge to $150 per barrel, and won a Gerald Loeb Award for my reporting on the 2010 "flash crash," Wall Street's first algorithmically driven market meltdown. In 2007, I was a finalist for the same award for coverage of the merger of Chicago’s major futures exchanges.
I am a graduate of Florida A&M University's journalism school and recipient of its Thelma Thurston Gorham Distinguished Alumnus Award.
If you would like to reach me directly, the best way is to email peter[at]pmckay[dot]com. Or if you prefer, drop me a DM on LinkedIn or Twitter. 😎