Who is Vitalik Buterin: the founder of Ethereum
By: Gianmarco Guazzo
Tags: Technology, History, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Ethereum

Who is Vitalik Buterin: the founder of Ethereum

Let’s try to find out more about who is the mastermind behind the Ethereum project starting from the history of cryptocurrency

After having dealt with the topic of DeFi (decentralized finance) for a few articles, let’s take a step back to understand who’s behind the cryptocurrency that underlies all these projects and why it is such an important individuality in the sector. With a market capitalization smaller than just the one of Bitcoin, Ethereum is undoubtedly one of the most important cryptocurrencies within the cryptocurrencies space.

Developing the concept

Its creator, Vitalik Buterin, is recognized by all as one of the most influential people in the crypto world given his long history in the industry. A Russian-Canadian writer and programmer, Vitalik has always been passionate about cryptography, so much that he was one of the first people to learn about Bitcoin when it was still a niche project. In 2011 he became a co-founder of the Bitcoin Magazine with the role of head writer, writing dozens of articles related to cryptocurrency. In 2013, with the blessing of his father, Vitalik left the university to travel and learn more about the digital currency, immediately sensing the potential of crypto. In the same year, he participates in a seminar on cryptocurrencies organized by the Winklevoss twins, an event that confirms the potential of this new protocol to Vitalik.

Over time Vitalik realizes that Bitcoin is very static in its operation and does not allow radical changes to the code. Also, the Bitcoin scripting language did not allow you to write complex applications outside the spending conditions of a given transaction. From this simple intuition starts the idea of ​​creating a system that used the Blockchain, like Bitcoin, but which would allow writing, through a Turin Complete language, programs capable of theoretically solving any computational problem was born.

The Project and the Ethereum Foundation

The project conceived by the young Vitalik, together with a group of entrepreneurs and programmers, had the aim of decentralizing most of the programmable aspects in the modern world of the internet. By relying on Ethereum’s decentralized network and having the ability to write intelligent programs (Smart Contracts) capable of self-executing according to inputs defined by programmers, the community was, therefore, able to create applications outside the typical financial circle of Bitcoin.

In 2014, Vitalik’s idea received a $ 100,000 grant that allowed him to create the Ethereum Foundation and start working full-time on the project. Before reaching success, however, Vitalik had to face the regulatory problems that had been making Bitcoin’s life very hard for some time. However, the solution that leads to the real birth of Ethereum arises from this problem. Instead of selling project equity or debt, the Ethereum Foundation decided to offer a product, namely Ether. Ether, in addition to being a digital currency sold directly to buyers, was also an integral part of the system as all Ethereum-based transactions and applications required them.

The crowd salt for the sale of Ether lasted 42 days, thanks to which the Ethereum Foundation raised more than 31000 bitcoins, a sum that was worth at that time around 18 million dollars. The price of Ether, like the one of Bitcoin, thus increased as the interest in cryptocurrency. The history of Ethereum, however, is not only studded with positive events: in fact, in 2016 a theft of about 50 million dollars forced the community to modify the software to return the stolen money.

Conclusions

Five years after its birth, Ethereum is proving to be one of the most interesting and dynamic projects in the world of cryptocurrencies. Its community and the search for solutions to improve standards, scalability and security undoubtedly make it a project to be taken into consideration, given the move to ETH 2.0 in which we move from a POW to POS consensus algorithm.

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