Born in London and raised in Athens, Andreas M. Antonopoulos is among world’s most acclaimed bitcoin and blockchain experts. Antonopoulos not only discusses the technology in investment terms, but also approaches the subject from an educational, political, cultural, and human perspectives.
One of the most sought-after bitcoin speakers, Antonopoulos earned degrees in Computer Science, Data Communications and Distributed Systems at University College London. Afterwards, he went on to co-found and manage a technology research company in New York City. In this capacity, Antonopoulos advised dozens of Fortune 500 company executives on networking, security, data centres, and cloud computing.
In 2014, Antonopoulos was appointed a teaching fellow with the University of Nicosia, the first university in the world to offer a Masters Degree in Digital Currency. Antonopoulos serves on the Oversight Committee for the Bitcoin Reference Rate at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He is also a best-selling author, speaker, and educator. In 2014, Antonopoulos authored the groundbreaking book Mastering Bitcoin believed to be the best technical guide ever written about the technology that has been translated into a number of languages including Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Greek, Czech, Hungarian and others.
His second book, is The Internet of Money, which explains the technology’s potential impacts on human civilization. The author illuminates bitcoin's philosophical, social, and historical implications. The second volume of The Internet of Money was released in the late fall of 2017 and sold thousands of copies in the first month alone.
His fourth book, Mastering Ethereum co-authored by Gavin Wood explains everything one needs to know about building smart contracts and decentralized autonomous organizations on the ethereum blockchain. The book will be published in the fall of 2018.
The long-time blockchain advocate’s YouTube channel is a must-subscribe for any crypto enthusiast. On his channel, which currently has over 156 thousand subscribers, Andreas shares his speeches and talks, as well as various Q&A’s regarding bitcoin and ethereum.
Antonopoulos believes that cryptocurrency could be easy used by everyone.
“And then we’ll have to try to explain to our children and our descendants what the hell we were thinking with these plastic cards and this linseed and cotton money that was covered in terms… and they will not understand what we’re talking about,” he says.
Meanwhile, Antonopoulos is against the idea of a bitcoin EFT. In a video shared recently, the expert says “it’s a terrible idea” as bitcoin ETF products can cause higher price manipulation with institutional investors and regulators dominating the bitcoin space.
Antonopoulos makes a living from donations to a Patreon account, speaking fees, and book royalties. In December 2017, he became an instant millionaire after receiving donations of over 100 bitcoins totaling about $1.6 million from more than a thousand followers of his work. This followed a confession that he was not a bitcoin millionaire and had been working for free, instead of investing.
I'm not a bitcoin millionnaire. I was working for free, instead of investing, for the first 2 years. Only recently got out of debt.
— Andreas M. Antonopoulos (@aantonop) November 30, 2017
My supporters on Patreon, many at $5/month, make it possible for me to work with independence.
Most gave a fraction of a bitcoin to the cryptocurrency advocate. But others gave much more—one user gave 79 bitcoin, or about $580,900. Another sent him $1.2 million worth.
“Words are my craft, but tonight I am speechless,” he then wrote on Twitter, noting that he was going offline for a few days to “process everything that happened.” Andreas pledges to use the funds to give bitcoin to new users, helping them experience the currency, pay for travel and accommodation for conferences and meetups, as well as contribute to open source bitcoin projects that support the community.
Having started a career as public speaker in 1990s, Antonopoulos has had more than 1,000 speaking engagements around the world. He has also appeared as an expert witness in various capacities.
In 2014 he testified in a hearing of the Canadian Senate Commerce, Banking and Finance Committee, educating Senators on the current state and future developments of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Antonopoulos also stressed that he’s not particularly interested in what bitcoin can do for Western developed countries.
“I am fascinated by the idea of being able to deploy bitcoin on a Nokia feature phone in Kenya/Lagos/Nigeria and bringing online to a global economy, people who have never had access to financial services with international credit, and who could now be connected to everyone else in the world on an equal footing,” he said.
In March 2014 Andreas M. Antonopoulos appeared before the Australian Senate as part of an inquiry into the local treatment of digital currencies. "The bitcoin industry can establish Australia at the forefront of the next wave of innovation of financial services," he then stated.
Antonopoulos urged Senators to resist the temptation to apply centralized solutions to this decentralized network.
As an expert, Andreas has been interviewed on the BBC, Bloomberg Business, CNN, The Economist, Forbes, and Motherboard/VICE. He is also a permanent host on the popular Let’s Talk Bitcoin Podcast.