Now his latest bet is harnessing the power of the volatile currency to build a football club, using it for everyday club transactions — as well as a clever marketing tool. The club’s pirate badge features the bitcoin logo and the words “est. block 712003”, denoting Real Bedford’s first trace on the currency’s blockchain database in place of a founding date. Its orange shirt reflects the way bitcoiners talk about people being “orange-pilled” when becoming true believers in the cryptocurrency, a play on the red pill taken in the film The Matrix. But despite the club’s crypto credentials, its website carries a prominent warning that bitcoin is a risky investment that should be treated with caution.

“Fans sometimes ask if we’re being paid in bitcoin,” says the goalkeeper Tyler McGregor, a 22-year-old PE teacher from Milton Keynes and one of only two players surviving the team’s rise through the ranks from the Spartan South Midlands League Division One. Players and staff do have the option of taking home some or all of their wages in the currency. “All I really know is that it’s a very good way of making your money work for you. It can fluctuate but it seems to be gaining momentum with more people using it. But I’m not that well educated on it. It does get brought up in the changing room, but we just want to win football matches and do our best for Peter. He’s building a remarkable foundation for Bedford and I hope he can keep it going.”

“So I thought, how do I bust this model? Then I thought if we become a bitcoin club we are instantly an international club because I’ve got the platform and the podcast. So where most clubs are selling a couple of grand in merch, we’ve sold £300,000 in three years — it’s insane. Shirts, hoodies, hats — we’ve sold loads of them. We did a five-year sponsorship deal with Gemini for half a million quid when most clubs like us would be over the moon to get five or ten grand for their shirt sponsorship. This is all unique at our level.”