Remember that old video of a guy preaching enthusiastically about Bitcoin to a virtually empty room, save for a few reporters? Well, that guy today has a lot of reasons to be smug towards people who chose to ignore him at that time. We’re talking about Andreas Antonopoulos, a legend of Bitcoin who started out as a Bitcoin skeptic himself, only to become its fervent advocate and educator, making countless presentations on the matter and pushing Bitcoin’s potential for financial inclusion, especially of the unbanked, as well coining the phrase “Be your own bank,” urging decentralization and caution against custodial services.
In 2014, Antonopoulos wrote and published the book titled Mastering Bitcoin, which to this day remains an irrefutable guide on the subject. Becoming a key figure in addressing Bitcoin myths, criticizing centralized institutions, and warning about central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), his influence extended across the globe, attracting figures like Joe Rogan and Michael Saylor. Today, Antonopoulos is celebrated as one of Bitcoin’s foremost proponents and believers in its revolutionary potential.
Here at PlasBit, we love stories like Andreas’ because they demonstrate the sheer genius and optimism among Bitcoin pioneers despite outside suspicion, as well as the power of the world’s first cryptocurrency to sway the great minds of today to its side.
Before Bitcoin: Andreas Antonopoulos’ Journey
Long before becoming almost synonymous with Bitcoin, Andreas Antonopoulos started his career as an accomplished technologist, computer scientist, cyber security consultant, and entrepreneur with a degree in Computer Science and Data Communications from UCL.
Before discovering Bitcoin, he demonstrated a pronounced interest in emerging technologies but was initially suspicious of cryptocurrencies, dismissing Bitcoin as “nerd money” in 2011. This was despite the fact that the first Bitcoin transaction of 10 BTC already occurred successfully in 2009.
However, his skepticism turned into fascination in 2012 after he got his hands on Bitcoin’s famed white paper titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. The white paper was authored by the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
In it, Bitcoin's founder outlined a revolutionary solution to a long-standing problem in computer science. Known as the Byzantine Generals’ Problem, it revolved around reaching a consensus in a network of nodes, where some of these nodes may be malicious or unreliable.
To address this issue, Nakamoto presented the “proof-of-work” solution, which provided a mechanism to achieve consensus in a decentralized system without the need for a trusted central authority. Bitcoin’s underlying technology would become blockchain, establishing a transparent and tamper-proof ledger recording all transactions on the network.
Reading the white paper, Andreas realized that Bitcoin (which was changing hands at the price of around $9 at the time) wasn’t just a digital currency but more. It was a revolutionary protocol for decentralized financial systems.
Falling down the Bitcoin rabbit hole like Alice in (Blockchain) Wonderland, he became obsessed with learning about it. In fact, he was so captivated that he would go full-on Bitcoin binge mode, skipping meals and shedding 26 pounds. Forget gym memberships if you want to lose weight - maybe just read up on Bitcoin!
As he recalled in an interview with Brian Rose at London Real:
“I went into a fugue state for four months. I dropped everything, it was almost a dissociative state. I would get up in the morning and read everything I could find about Bitcoin, run code, program, digest code, read more papers, read conversations, try to understand it deeper. I look at my watch and it’s midnight. I haven’t eaten anything. I go to bed, wake up at 8 o’clock in the morning, start again, 18 hours a day, for four months, just unable to do anything else, a complete obsession, to a point where this is not healthy. I lost 26 pounds. Not because I was dieting but because, to eat, I had to stop reading.”
Andreas Antonopoulos’ First Bitcoin Talk
As he became a strong believer in Bitcoin’s concept, Andreas wanted to share his views with the community at large. At a small gathering of crypto enthusiasts in 2013 in San Jose, CA, hosted by the Bitcoin Foundation, he delivered his first major talk about Bitcoin.
And when we say ‘small,’ it’s an understatement. There he was, passionately explaining Bitcoin’s principles and revolutionary potential to a crowd that could’ve been mistaken for a poorly attended book club meeting. As a reminder, Bitcoin was then still unknown to many, so it was a bit of a niche thing, trading for around $80 per coin.
Mind you, his address wasn’t just on the technical aspects of Bitcoin. No sir/ma’am - he also emphasized its philosophical underpinnings, focusing on financial independence, empowerment, and inclusion. Here’s how he explained the principle of Bitcoin’s neutrality to the five people in the audience:
“Neutrality in Bitcoin means being able to adopt Bitcoin in any culture, any language, any religion, any geography, but also any political or economic system. So Bitcoin neutrality is about making Bitcoin a standard that is independent of your desires and expectations. This isn’t a libertarian currency any more than it is a communist currency. It’s a currency, and it can be applied to any political system, whether it is the political system you like or not. It’s a neutral currency.”
His ability to bridge the gap between complex technology and its real-world implications made his presentation resonate with the audience and be shared far and wide - to this day. As such, it marked the beginning of Andreas’ journey into legend as one of Bitcoin’s most prominent educators and advocates.
Spreading the Crypto Word: Bitcoin’s Missionary
Over the following years, Antonopoulos became a prolific speaker, traveling across the world to spread the “gospel” of Bitcoin. Through hundreds of lectures, seminars, and conferences, he addressed a wide array of topics, ranging from Bitcoin’s technical architecture to its role in society and the economy.
In the meantime, he wrote several books, including Mastering Bitcoin, Mastering the Lightning Network, The Internet of Money, and Mastering Ethereum, published in multiple volumes and languages. Thanks to their massive contribution to the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, these became the most important works in the sector, guiding beginners and experts alike.
One of the issues he continually warned about was the very real threats to Bitcoin’s existence. And despite the price of one whole BTC hitting as much as $1,000 later in 2013, this problem weighed heavily on him. In one of his speeches, he told the Silicon Valley:
“The most important thing to notice is that when they come to take away your Bitcoin neutrality, they’re not going to phrase it in terms of breaking Bitcoin. They’re going to phrase it in terms of fixing Bitcoin, making it harder to steal Bitcoin, making it easier to reverse theft of Bitcoin, making it easier to stop criminals from using Bitcoin by using filtering on addresses. Resist. We cannot allow them to break Bitcoin neutrality, because if they break Bitcoin neutrality, the system, the network, the currency devolves into being just another fiat. And I don’t want that to happen, because Bitcoin is just not another fiat. Bitcoin isn’t the 193rd currency in the world. Bitcoin is the first supranational currency, and we’ve never done that before.”
By 2014, Andreas became the go-to person to quell the Bitcoin FUD (‘fear, uncertainty, and doubt’), arguing that the 51% attacks (a theoretical situation in which a group of miners may control more than half of the network's mining hash rate, allowing them to potentially disrupt it) “cannot be done with Bitcoin anymore.”
In his view, this is only possible with altcoins, whereas Bitcoin “has achieved a level of computing that no single nation state can overthrow it through computation alone. (...) They would have lost a billion dollars doing this, and all they got to do was one double spend.”
Andreas was often featured as a headline speaker at the largest conferences in the world, winning over audiences with his innovative ideas and interesting analogies. One of them is describing Bitcoin in music terms, as the punk rock of crypto as opposed to smooth jazz, at the WIRED Money 2015 event:
“Bitcoin is not smooth jazz. Bitcoin is punk rock. Deal with it. It is disruptive. And the reason it is disruptive is precisely why it’s so difficult to swallow and swaddle in traditional investment terms. Bitcoin is the first completely decentralized transnational platform for exchanging value. It has no borders. It doesn’t care whether you like the transaction or not. It is entirely based on mathematical verifiability. It is the Internet, unleashed, unvarnished, unpolished, and uncensorable. And if you can’t swallow that pill, there’s a startup out there that’s going to take that innovation and is going to disrupt your industry.”
Criticizing governments, Andreas didn’t mince words there either, suggesting that they too would be disrupted by Bitcoin and distributed consensus (but that they would not take it without a fight). Coining the phrase “rules without rulers” this is what he said at the Swedish Bitcoin Association event in 2017:
“I don’t want safe. I want free. I want innovative. I want global, transnational, neutral, censorship-resistant. And I will continue to use the system that expresses those principles. And through my choice, I will participate in the consensus rules without rulers. These systems will not be regulated. And the problem is that when you present the world with a system that cannot be regulated through traditional political power, this will not go down easily. A fantastic quote by Clay Shirky comes to mind - ‘Organizations that exist to solve a problem are resistant to fixing the problem.’ Bitcoin fixes the problem without the organizations to solve it, without the intermediaries.”
Taking aim at the media and banks’ FUD around Bitcoin, when Bitcoiners were being labeled terrorists and drug dealers, he made it clear he was, actually, abetting criminal behavior - but through the use of U.S. dollars and not Bitcoin as many would have it:
“What they’re hearing is not ‘one of the most amazing technologies in decentralized consensus networks and payment systems ever.’ What they hear about is ‘DRUGS ON THE INTERNET!.’ (...) And this is the mainstream perception. This is the first stage - denial. (...) And what we’re seeing now is that they’ve moved from denial to anger. Angry about the terrible things you can do, because Bitcoin is now all about ‘funding ISIS.’ Who here has contributed to ISIS recently? I raised my hand there because I pay taxes in the United States. I don’t know if you have noticed, but ISIS is driving M1 Abrams tanks and Humvees with the American flags hastily sprayed off. So, strictly speaking, yes, I have funded ISIS through the U.S. Department of Defense, in U.S. dollars, by leaving behind a lot of nice equipment and pallets of dollars and things like that.”
Andreas Antonopoulos vs. Traditional Banking
His talks have often focused on empowering individuals, particularly in regions where traditional banking systems were inaccessible or exploitative. Andreas’ passion and tireless efforts earned him a reputation as a “Bitcoin missionary,” a modern-day evangelist who speaks of Bitcoin as much more than just a currency.
“Six and a half billion people on this planet have no connection to the world of money. (...) The possibility of bringing 6.5 billion people into a productive society by connecting them to the rest of the world is truly revolutionary. First, we’re going to start affecting the payment processors, these enormous companies that make it more expensive to send money, the poorer the destination country is. And these organizations make enormous amounts of profits for a function that can be done in Bitcoin for free. As the adage of the Internet once went, I just replaced your entire industry with a hundred lines of Python code. That is exactly what we’re doing with Bitcoin.”
It is at one of these talks that Andreas welcomed the phrase “be your own bank” through Bitcoin, making it clear that users should not trust custodians. As it later turned out, he was correct, as Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox lost 750,000 BTC back in early 2014 - the consequences of which are felt across the sector even 10 years after the deed.
A vocal critic of traditional banking systems and centralized finance, it’s hardly a surprise he found support among influential and somewhat controversial folks like Joe Rogan, the host of The Joe Rogan Experience. During his notable appearance on the podcast, Andreas gave Rogan his first five Bitcoins, as well as sending a few important messages.
One of them was that “we are going to a digital currency society where cash will be gradually eradicated” and in which governments are limiting the use of cash. He wondered whether this is what the future is - “a society in which our digital money is under complete surveillance and complete control.”
By contrast:
“The other scenario is one in which individuals control their money (...) like Bitcoin, where you can pay an individual, from one person to another, just like I can with cash today, without any other party getting involved. (...) Tipping is pretty much the last remaining part of our society where cash is used to pay from one person who is not an incorporated entity to another person who is not an incorporated entity.”
Indeed, he asserted that centralized institutions had too much control over people’s financials, often acting in self-interest rather than the benefit of the public. He also voiced strong opposition to CBDCs, which he viewed as a tool of centralized systems for surveillance and control.
In 2016, when Bitcoin was targeted by Big Bank blockchains, Andreas again stood in its defense, such as when he mocked a Wall Street firm over inventing “an editable blockchain.” Specifically, at the San Francisco Bitcoin Meetup, he sarcastically pointed out:
“Accenture announced a patent they filed for the first editable blockchain that can be modified, resolving the fundamental problem we had in Bitcoin of immutability. And with their contributions and the contributions of other companies like that, one by one, we can solve the fundamental problems in Bitcoin such as decentralization, open access, lack of a central authority or counterparty risk, immutability, and at some point, I’m assuming the concept of sound money.”
He also outright ridiculed banks, calling them “bubble boys” that wouldn’t be able to survive in the wild. On the other hand, he compared Bitcoin to a “swarm of sewer rats” that can deal with pretty much anything you throw at them:
“Bitcoin is a swarm of sewer rats. (...) They eat raw sewage, they eat your trash. They eat the most virulent things on the planet. (...) A rat is not going to have allergies. (...) This thing is already carrying three variations of the Plague and shrugs it off. And that’s exactly what Bitcoin is. Malleability. Attacks? DDoS? (...) The best and the brightest, the meanest and most malicious, are throwing everything they can at this deformed swarm of sewer rats out there (...). And it survives.”
In 2021, when Bitcoin was surging past $60,000, Andreas further discussed the dangers of CBDCs. In the spirit of a true stand-up comedian, he likened them to sinking cruise ships, where the crew is trying to convince passengers the ship is now a floating lifeboat because they painted it orange. Spoiler alert: it’s still sinking.
“We have been announcing the insufficiency of lifeboats for years now, but as you can see, people are not returning to their cabins. So I have a new plan - operation ‘Cruise Ship Lifeboats.’ We are going to call this a central bank digital currency. The people have spoken. They want lifeboats… Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Due to increased interest in lifeboats, we are now starting a conversion program. As you can see around you, work units have started painting the cruise ship orange. By painting the cruise ship orange, we achieve all of the benefits of lifeboats, only with the stability of the crew and captain - without the volatility of waves, because we only have a 2% angle of, sorry, 3% angle of deck, excuse me, 9% angle of deck, which is perfectly normal. This new lifeboat has fantastic features for security, too. To prevent pirates from boarding us, (...) we are welding all of the deck doors shut.”
What is Andreas Antonopoulos Doing Today?
Nowadays, Andreas is still a massively influential figure in the Bitcoin space. He continues to educate through his website, YouTube channel, X profile, Reddit, online courses, and public speaking engagements. His focus has shifted slightly toward broader blockchain education, but Bitcoin remains at its core.
Blockchain startups and open-source cryptocurrency projects seek his expertise, which he gladly provides. In the Bitcoin community, he is widely revered for his integrity and dedication to decentralization. He has never sought to capitalize on his popularity, opting instead to remain a neutral and principled advocate for Bitcoin.
It is even rumored that MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor used Andreas’ content to orange-pill the company’s boardroom. Imagine that pitch: “Forget spreadsheets, let’s buy ALL the Bitcoin.” And they actually did - MicroStrategy has since bought more than 200,000 BTC, worth a mind-numbing $20 billion as of today. Talk about ROI.
While we’re on the subject, check out this article by PlasBit if you want to learn more about Saylor and his successes as a Bitcoin advocate.
Continuous Quest for Financial Freedom
Through his tenacious dedication to the crypto space growth, along with his passionate, often humorous approach to demystifying Bitcoin, Andreas Antonopoulos has cemented his legacy as one of the most influential figures in this industry.
From his early skepticism to fiery speeches, he has gone a long way to show why decentralization is a must, with his books remaining gold standards for those wanting to understand the technology. At the same time, his witty critiques of traditional finance provide fresh perspectives.
At PlasBit, we’re inspired by crypto pioneers like Andreas, whose work fuels the drive for financial liberty and inclusion through decentralization. As Bitcoin becomes more accepted in the mainstream, figures like him remind us of its mission: to foster freedom, empowerment, and innovation.
