Andreas Antonopoulos

Andreas M. Antonopoulos is a Greek - California-based information security expert, tech-entrepreneur and author. He is a host on the Let's Talk Bitcoin podcast and a teaching fellow for the master in science Digital Currencies at the University of Nicosia.

Antonopoulos obtained his degree in Computer Science and Data Communications and Distributed Systems from the University College London. He consulted business on open source and open networks as early as 1990. He has authored more than two hundred articles published in print and syndicated worldwide. As a partner at Nemertes Research, 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.

Antonopoulos is a consultant on several bitcoin-related startups and permanent host of the Let’s Talk Bitcoin podcast. He served as head of the Bitcoin Foundation's anti-poverty committee until 2014, resigning due to disagreements with its management. In a statement explaining the reasons for his resignation, he said "I can no longer have even the smallest association with the Bitcoin Foundation, because of the complete lack of transparency."

In January 2014, Antonopoulos joined Blockchain.info as Chief Security Officer. In September 2014 he left the CSO role and became an advisor to the board.

Antonopoulos was an outspoken critic of the Mt. Gox trading platform as early as April 2013, calling it "a systemic risk to bitcoin, a death trap for traders and a business run by the clueless". In February 2014, following the closing of Mt. Gox, Antonopoulos published a further analysis of the collapse and its effect on the greater bitcoin ecosystem.

In April 2014, Antonopoulos organized 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 $23,000 at the time.

On October 8, 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. In his testimony, he warned senators against premature regulation of bitcoin, stating "Wait until the technology is better understood by all of us ... there are many applications based on this model -- would stifle this technology in its early days."