Andreas Antonopoulos

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Andreas M. Antonopoulos
Internetdagarna 2017 (38513379582) (cropped).jpg
Andreas Antonopoulos presenting at Internetdagarna 2017 in Stockholm
Born1972 (age 50–51)
Nationality
Alma mater University College London
OccupationTech entrepreneur [1]
Website antonopoulos.com

Andreas M. Antonopoulos (born 1972 in London) is a British-Greek [2] [3] Bitcoin advocate, tech entrepreneur, and author. He is a host on the Speaking of Bitcoin podcast [4] (formerly called Let's Talk Bitcoin! [5] ) and a teaching fellow for the M.Sc. Digital Currencies at the University of Nicosia. [6]

Contents

Early life and education

Antonopoulos was born in 1972 in London, UK, [2] and moved to Athens, Greece during the Greek Junta.[ citation needed ] He spent his childhood there, [3] [7] and at the age of 17 returned to the UK.[ citation needed ] Antonopoulos obtained his degrees in Computer science and Data Communications, Networks and Distributed Systems from University College London. [2] [8] [9]

Career

Nemertes Research

He was Senior Vice President and a Founding Partner with Nemertes Research, from 2003 until 2011. [8] 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. [10]

Antonopoulos introducing Bitcoin in 2016.

Bitcoin involvement

In 2012, Antonopoulos became enamored with Bitcoin. 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. [11]

According to his podcast, Antonopoulos is a consultant on several bitcoin-related startups. [12]

In January 2014, Antonopoulos joined Blockchain.info as chief security officer. [13] 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 article as the creator of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. 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. [14] [15]

On 8 October 2014, Antonopoulos spoke in front of the Banking, Trade and Commerce committee of the Senate of Canada to address the senators' questions on how to regulate bitcoin in Canada. [16]

In March 2016, the first edition of Mastering Bitcoin was released by Antonopoulos, in print and online, [17] followed by a second edition in June 2017. [18]

In December 2017, unsolicited donations of over 100 bitcoins were sent to Antonopoulos by over a thousand followers of his work, after Roger Ver made a public post to Twitter on 5 December questioning Antonopoulos's investment choices given his "eloquent" public speaking about bitcoin since 2012. [11] [19]

Bibliography

Books

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bitcoin</span> Decentralized digital currency

Bitcoin is a protocol which implements a highly available, public, permanent, and decentralized ledger. In order to add to the ledger, a user must prove they control an entry in the ledger. The protocol specifies that the entry indicates an amount of a token, bitcoin with a minuscule b. The user can update the ledger, assigning some of their bitcoin to another entry in the ledger. Because the token has characteristics of money, it can be thought of as a digital currency.

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, Nakamoto also devised the first blockchain database. Nakamoto was active in the development of bitcoin up until December 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cryptocurrency</span> Encrypted medium of digital exchange

A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. It is a decentralized system for verifying that the parties to a transaction have the money they claim to have, eliminating the need for traditional intermediaries, such as banks, when funds are being transferred between two entities.

Litecoin is a decentralized peer-to-peer cryptocurrency and open-source software project released under the MIT/X11 license. Inspired by Bitcoin, Litecoin was among the earliest altcoins, starting in October 2011. In technical details, the Litecoin main chain shares a slightly modified Bitcoin codebase. The practical effects of those codebase differences are lower transaction fees, faster transaction confirmations, and faster mining difficulty retargeting. Due to its underlying similarities to Bitcoin, Litecoin has historically been referred to as the "silver to Bitcoin's gold." In 2022, Litecoin added optional privacy features via soft fork through the MWEB upgrade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bitcoin network</span> Peer-to-peer network that processes and records bitcoin transactions

The Bitcoin network is a peer-to-peer network of nodes which implement the Bitcoin protocol. The protocol itself implements a highly available, public, and decentralized ledger. The nodes verify that each update to the ledger follows the rules of the Bitcoin protocol.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Primecoin</span> Cryptocurrency based on prime numbers

Primecoin is a cryptocurrency that implements a proof-of-work system that searches for chains of prime numbers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of bitcoin</span> History of Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, a digital asset that uses cryptography to control its creation and management rather than relying on central authorities. Originally designed as a medium of exchange, Bitcoin is now primarily regarded as a store of value. The history of bitcoin started with its invention and implementation by Satoshi Nakamoto, who integrated many existing ideas from the cryptography community. Over the course of bitcoin's history, it has undergone rapid growth to become a significant store of value both on- and offline. From the mid-2010s, some businesses began accepting bitcoin in addition to traditional currencies.

Nicholas Szabo is a computer scientist, legal scholar, and cryptographer known for his research in digital contracts and digital currency. He graduated from the University of Washington in 1989 with a degree in computer science and received a Juris Doctor degree from George Washington University Law School. He holds an honorary professorship at the Universidad Francisco Marroquín.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethereum</span> Open-source blockchain computing platform

Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, ether is second only to bitcoin in market capitalization. It is open-source software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Counterparty (platform)</span> Cryptocurrency platform

Counterparty is a peer-to-peer financial platform and distributed, open source Internet protocol built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain and network. It was one of the most well-known "Bitcoin 2.0" platforms in 2014, along with Mastercoin, Ethereum, Colored Coins, Ripple and BitShares.

A blockchain is a distributed ledger with growing lists of records (blocks) that are securely linked together via cryptographic hashes. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data. The timestamp proves that the transaction data existed when the block was created. Since each block contains information about the previous block, they effectively form a chain, with each additional block linking to the ones before it. Consequently, blockchain transactions are irreversible in that, once they are recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without altering all subsequent blocks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethereum Classic</span> Open source blockchain computing platform

Ethereum Classic is an open source, blockchain-based distributed computing platform featuring smart contract (scripting) functionality. It supports a modified version of Nakamoto consensus via transaction-based state transitions executed on a public Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lightning Network</span> "Layer 2" payment protocol that operates on top of a blockchain-based cryptocurrency

The Lightning Network (LN) is a "layer 2" payment protocol layered on top of Bitcoin. It is intended to enable fast transactions among participating nodes and has been proposed as a solution to the bitcoin scalability problem. It features a peer-to-peer system for making micropayments of cryptocurrency through a network of bidirectional payment channels without delegating custody of funds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bitcoin scalability problem</span> Scaling problem in bitcoin processing

The Bitcoin scalability problem refers to the limited capability of the Bitcoin network to handle large amounts of transaction data on its platform in a short span of time. It is related to the fact that records in the Bitcoin blockchain are limited in size and frequency.

A cryptocurrency wallet is a device, physical medium, program or a service which stores the public and/or private keys for cryptocurrency transactions. In addition to this basic function of storing the keys, a cryptocurrency wallet more often offers the functionality of encrypting and/or signing information. Signing can for example result in executing a smart contract, a cryptocurrency transaction, identification or legally signing a 'document'.

In blockchain, a fork is defined variously as:

Wakefield Scott Stornetta is an American physicist and scientific researcher. His 1991 paper "How to Time-Stamp a Digital Document”, co-authored with Stuart Haber, won the 1992 Discover Award for Computer Software and is considered to be one of the most important papers in the development of cryptocurrencies.

Stuart Haber is an American cryptographer and computer scientist, known for his contributions in cryptography and privacy-preserving technologies and widely recognized as the co-inventor of the blockchain. His 1991 paper "How to Time-Stamp a Digital Document”, co-authored with W. Scott Stornetta, won the 1992 Discover Award for Computer Software and is considered to be one of the most important papers in the development of cryptocurrencies.

References

  1. ↑ "Issue 15 - Evidence - October 8, 2014". Proceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce. Parliament of Canada. 8 October 2014. Archived from the original on 4 March 2021. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 Andreas M. Antonopoulos (10 July 2015). Andreas M. Antonopoulos: "Consensus Algorithms, Blockchain Technology and Bitcoin" [UCL]. London: YouTube. Event occurs at 0:00-0:18. So this is, this is great, it's back to my roots. I was a student here in 1990, but i was actually born in London, and i am half British which you won't hear in my accent any more; Brooklyn changed that.
  3. 1 2 Andreas M. Antonopoulos (19 August 2015). THE GREEK DEBT CRISIS EXPLAINED - Andreas Antonopoulos. London: YouTube (published 29 August 2015). Event occurs at 0:11-0:20. Brian Rose: Are you Greek? Andreas Antonopoulos: Yes, i am. I lived in Greece most of my childhood. I graduated from high school there. My parents are still in Greece, at the moment.
  4. ↑ "Speaking of Bitcoin (formerly Let's Talk Bitcoin!)". SoundCloud. Retrieved 23 November 2021.
  5. ↑ AARON MAK (29 December 2018). "Cryptocurrency's Terrible 2018". Slate. Slate. Archived from the original on 4 March 2021. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
  6. ↑ Elias Hazou (11 April 2014). "UNIC launches bitcoin course". Business. CyprusMail. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 14 November 2014.
  7. ↑ Araya, Daniel (29 February 2016). "The Promise of Bitcoin: An Interview With Andreas M. Antonopoulos". Futurism. Archived from the original on 2 March 2016. Retrieved 12 July 2021. I've been interested in cryptocurrencies since the early 1990s. In many ways, my interest stems from my experiences growing up in Greece. I saw the way a currency crisis could wipe out the wealth of an entire generation, and it had a big impact on me.
  8. 1 2 Antonopoulos, Andreas M. "Andreas M. Antonopoulos". LinkedIn . Archived from the original on 12 June 2007.
  9. ↑ Irving Gerstein (8 October 2014). Canadian Senate Testimony on Bitcoin. Ottawa: YouTube (published 16 April 2016). Event occurs at 0:38-0:42. He is a Computer Sciences graduate from University College London.
  10. ↑ John Schwartz (12 September 2007). "Who Needs Hackers?". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 4 November 2014. Retrieved 4 November 2014.
  11. 1 2 Lucinda Shen (8 December 2017). "Why People Are Giving This Man Almost $2 Million in Free Bitcoin". Fortune . Archived from the original on 9 December 2017. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  12. ↑ David Morris (21 January 2014). "Bitcoin is not just digital currency. It's Napster for finance". Archived from the original on 20 October 2014. Retrieved 16 October 2014.
  13. ↑ Kyt Dotson (29 January 2014). "Bitcoin Weekly, January 29, 2014: TigerDirect on board, CEO of BitInstant arrested, Antonopoulos joins Blockchain.info". siliconANGLE. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  14. ↑ Kevin Collier (22 April 2014). "Dorian Nakamoto thanks Bitcoin community for $23,000 donation". The Daily Dot . Archived from the original on 11 November 2014. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  15. ↑ Oscar Williams-Grut (17 March 2014). "Bitcoins raised for 'inventor' Dorian Nakamoto". London Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  16. ↑ Michael Carney (9 October 2014). "Bitcoin evangelist Andreas Antonopoulos wows Canada's Senate Committee on Banking". PandoDaily. Archived from the original on 18 November 2014. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  17. ↑ Github (17 March 2016). "Release Edition1Print1 - bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook". GitHub . Archived from the original on 9 July 2020. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
  18. ↑ Github (8 June 2017). "Second Edition - First Print - bitcoinbook/bitcoinbook". GitHub . Archived from the original on 9 July 2020. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  19. ↑ Joon Ian Wong (8 December 2017). "A bitcoin booster got $1.5 million after being "bitshamed" for being poor". Quartz . Archived from the original on 4 March 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
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