“Can you define ‘blockchain’? I think a few people in this room could define blockchain, but the real challenge would be can you define ‘blockchain’ in such a way that I can’t do search and replace with the word ‘database’ and still make that sentence work.”
-Andreas Antonopolous, in the YouTube video ‘Blockchain vs. Bullshit: Thoughts on the Future of Money’.
(read about Andreas Antonopolous on Wikipedia)
“Blockchain is Bitcoin with a haircut and a suit that you parade in front of your board.”
-Andreas Antonopolous, in the YouTube video ‘Blockchain vs. Bullshit: Thoughts on the Future of Money’.
(read about Andreas Antonopolous on Wikipedia)
“Bitcoin introduces a platform on which you can run currency as an application on a network without any central points of control. A system completely decentralized, like the internet itself. It is not money for the internet, but the internet of money.”
-Andreas Antonopolous, in the YouTube video ‘Introduction to Bitcoin: what is bitcoin and why does it matter?’.
(read about Andreas Antonopolous on Wikipedia)
“There was a time when the idea of allowing every human to be able to communicate without borders or censorship on the World Wide Web was terriying to people. To some people it still is terrifying. Most of the younger generation find it liberating in a global sense. Bitcoin does that to money.”
-Andreas Antonopolous, in the YouTube video ‘Bitcoin for Beginners: Bitcoin Explained in Simple Terms’.
(read about Andreas Antonopolous on Wikipedia)
“Bitcoin isn’t money. The blockchain isn’t a system of currency. It is a platform of trust. It’s not a company. It’s not a product. It’s not a service you sign up for. It’s not a currency. Currency is just the first application. It is the concept of decentralization applied to the human communication of value.”
-Andreas Antonopolous, in the YouTube video ‘Introduction to Bitcoin: what is bitcoin and why does it matter?’.
(read about Andreas Antonopolous on Wikipedia)
“What happened with the internet wasn’t that we had some great companies that made some great platforms. What happened with the internet was that you didn’t need anybody’s permission to launch an application, and so you could launch one and then let other people use it to launch another and another and another, and it created this tsunami of innovation that completely overwhelmed all of the possible competition so that they couldn’t compete — and this is going to happen to banking. They cannot compete against that. Because there’s no way you can do inside a company the amount of innovation of the entire world put together, all operating to serve their own special purpose without asking for anybody’s permission.”
-Andreas Antonopolous, in the YouTube video ‘The Five Pillars of Open Blockchains’.
(read about Andreas Antonopolous on Wikipedia)
“Bitcoin has no physical form. It doesn’t exist in any way. It is entirely intangible. It cannot be touched. It is simply a digital form of money. But it is a digital form of money that is entirely different from everything we’ve seen before. What it does that is different is that it is not a form of money that is recorded in the database or records of a company. Is it not a digital form of money that represents a debt owed to a central bank or government. It is not a digital form of money that has been issued by a sovereign, a central bank, a nation, a king. It is a form of digital money that has been issued by complex and energy-intensive computation; on the internet; is recorded on every computer that participates in the Bitcoin network; is validated independently by every computer that participates in the Bitcoin network; cannot be forged; cannot be counterfitted; cannot be seized or frozen; can be transmitted anywhere in the world as information; can be verified independently by anyone who receives it; and is not controlled by anyone.”
-Andreas Antonopolous, in the YouTube video ‘Bitcoin for Beginners: Bitcoin Explained in Simple Terms’.
(read about Andreas Antonopolous on Wikipedia)
“When you do a Bitcoin transaction, it is not related or attached to identity. You do not need to create an account. You do no need to register. You do not need to provide ID; or name; or location; or address, age, gender, race, religion, nationality, nothing. You don’t even need to be human.”
-Andreas Antonopolous, in the YouTube video ‘Bitcoin for Beginners: Bitcoin Explained in Simple Terms’.
(read about Andreas Antonopolous on Wikipedia)
“I’m interested in blockchains that are open, public, borderless, neutral, and censorship-resistant.”
-Andreas Antonopolous, in the YouTube video ‘The Five Pillars of Open Blockchains’.
(read about Andreas Antonopolous on Wikipedia)
“If I want to hack a million customer’s bitcoin, and they’re holding their own keys, I have to hack a million customers. If they all give their keys to one person or one organization, then we’ve got a honey pot: a honey pot that attracts the attention of every hacker on the planet.”
-Andreas Antonopolous, in the YouTube video ‘Introduction to Bitcoin: what is bitcoin and why does it matter?’.
(read about Andreas Antonopolous on Wikipedia)
If you haven’t already, please check out Andreas’ astoundingly good YouTube channel, learn about (and hopefully buy) his books at https://aantonop.com/books/, and generally promote this incredible proponent of Bitcoin wherever and whenever possible!
Know of any more great quotes from Andreas Antonopolous? Let us know in the comments below!