Andreas M. Antonopoulos (born 1972 in London) is a British-Greek

Bitcoin Bitcoin ( abbreviation: BTC; sign: ₿) is a decentralized digital currency that can be transferred on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network. Bitcoin transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public distr ...

advocate, tech entrepreneur, and author. He is a host on the ''Speaking of Bitcoin'' podcast (formerly called ''Let's Talk Bitcoin!'') and a teaching fellow for the

M.Sc. A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

Digital Currencies at the

University of Nicosia The University of Nicosia was established in 1980 and its main campus is located in Nicosia, the capital city of Cyprus. It also runs study centres in Athens, Bucharest and New York. The University comprises the School of Business, School of ...

Early life and education

Antonopoulos was born in 1972 in London, UK, and moved to Athens, Greece during the

Greek Junta The Greek junta or Regime of the Colonels, . Also known within Greece as just the Junta ( el, η Χούντα, i Choúnta, links=no, ), the Dictatorship ( el, η Δικτατορία, i Diktatoría, links=no, ) or the Seven Years ( el, η Ε ...

. He spent his childhood there, and at the age of 17 returned to the UK. Antonopoulos obtained his degrees in

Computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

and Data Communications, Networks and Distributed Systems from

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

Career

Nemertes Research

He was Senior Vice President and a Founding Partner with

Nemertes Research Nemertes Research is an American research-advisory firm that specializes in analyzing and quantifying the business value of emerging technologies headquartered in Lusby, MD. The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper bas ...

, from 2003 until 2011. While there, Antonopoulos researched computer security, stating that the greatest threat to computer security was not experienced hackers, but overly complex systems that resulted from rapid change in business.

Bitcoin involvement

In 2012, Antonopoulos became enamored with

. He eventually abandoned his job as a freelance consultant and started speaking at conferences about bitcoin, consulting for startups, and writing articles free of charge. According to his podcast, Antonopoulos is a consultant on several bitcoin-related startups. In January 2014, Antonopoulos joined

Blockchain.info Blockchain.com (formerly Blockchain.info) is a cryptocurrency financial services company. The company began as the first Bitcoin blockchain explorer in 2011 and later created a cryptocurrency wallet that accounted for 28% of bitcoin transacti ...

as chief security officer. In September 2014 he left the CSO role. In April 2014, Antonopoulos organised a fundraising campaign for Dorian Nakamoto, who was identified in a ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

'' article as the creator of bitcoin,

Satoshi Nakamoto Satoshi Nakamoto is the name used by the presumed pseudonymous person or persons who developed bitcoin, authored the bitcoin white paper, and created and deployed bitcoin's original reference implementation. As part of the implementation, Nakam ...

. The reporting techniques used in the article were controversial among journalists and Bitcoin community members. The fundraiser, intended to assist Nakamoto after the attention he received as a result of the article, raised 50 bitcoins, worth US$23,000 at the time. On 8 October 2014, Antonopoulos spoke in front of the Banking, Trade and Commerce committee of the

Senate of Canada The Senate of Canada (french: region=CA, Sénat du Canada) is the upper house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the House of Commons, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The Senate is modelled after the B ...

to address the senators' questions on how to regulate bitcoin in Canada. In March 2016, the first edition of ''Mastering Bitcoin'' was released by Antonopoulos, in print and online, followed by a second edition in June 2017. In December 2017, unsolicited donations of over 100 bitcoins were sent to Antonopoulos by over a thousand followers of his work, after

Roger Ver Roger Keith Ver (born 27 January 1979) is an early investor in Bitcoin, Bitcoin-related startups and an early promoter of Bitcoin. Ver has sometimes been referred to as "Bitcoin Jesus". He now primarily promotes Bitcoin Cash as Ver sees it as fu ...

made a public post to

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

on 5 December questioning Antonopoulos's investment choices given his "eloquent" public speaking about bitcoin since 2012.

Bibliography

Books

*''Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Currencies'' (2014,

O'Reilly O'Reilly ( ga, Ó Raghallaigh) is a group of families, ultimately all of Irish Gaels, Gaelic origin, who were historically the kings of East Bréifne in what is today County Cavan. The clan were part of the Connachta's Uí Briúin Bréifne kin ...

) *''Mastering Bitcoin 2nd Edition: Programming the Open Blockchain'' (2017, O'Reilly) *''Mastering Ethereum: Building Smart Contracts and dApps'' (2018, O'Reilly) *''The Internet of Money (Volume 1)'' (2016, O'Reilly) *''The Internet of Money (Volume 2)'' (2017, Merkle Bloom, self-published) *''The Internet of Money (Volume 3)'' (2019, Merkle Bloom, self-published)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Antonopoulos, Andreas M. Living people 1972 births Place of birth missing (living people) Alumni of University College London University of Nicosia faculty People associated with Bitcoin British motivational speakers British people of Greek descent 21st-century British male writers 21st-century Greek male writers British technology writers Greek technology writers Businesspeople in information technology People associated with cryptocurrency Open source advocates