Who is Vitalik Buterin

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3m April 7, 2023

Vitalik Buterin co-founded Ethereum, a leading cryptocurrency platform that enables the creation of decentralized applications using smart contracts. Born in Russia in 1994, Vitalik moved to Canada when he was six years old.

Vitalik first learned about cryptocurrency and Bitcoin in 2011 through his father, Dmitry Buterin, who is a computer scientist. Vitalik became an active participant in the Bitcoin community and co-founded Bitcoin Magazine in September 2011, where he served as head writer and published numerous articles about cryptocurrency and its technology. His deep involvement in the Bitcoin community and understanding of blockchain eventually led him to develop the idea for Ethereum, a more versatile and programmable blockchain platform.

Vitalik wrote the Ethereum whitepaper in 2013, detailing the concept of a blockchain platform that supports smart contracts, which are self-executing programs with the terms of the agreement written into code. Smart contracts enable automation and trust between parties without intermediaries, making Ethereum a powerful tool for creating various applications like decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and more.

He dropped out of the University of Waterloo in 2014 when he was awarded a grant of $100,000 from the Thiel Fellowship to work on Ethereum full-time.

Ethereum conducted its ICO in 2014, where people from around the world bought Ether (ETH) with Bitcoin. The sale concluded with more than 60 million ether sold at around 30 cents per coin, which amounted to $18.3 million at the time. It was a huge success.

The Ethereum network went live in 2015 and quickly gained adoption due to its support for dApps and smart contracts. Its popularity has grown further, and is now the second-largest blockchain network behind Bitcoin, where Vitalik remains the lead developer.

Vitalik played a crucial role in shaping the blockchain industry by creating Ethereum. His vision for a more versatile and adaptable platform has paved the way for new innovations and applications in cryptocurrency and beyond.