How Old Was Vitalik When He Created Ethereum

The 27-twelvemonth-old billionaire came up with the idea for Ethereum when he was just nineteen.

Vitalik Buterin is a cryptocurrency visionary. So much then that the creator of Ethereum (ETH), the second biggest cryptocurrency on the market, was recently selected as one of Time magazine’s 100 about influential people of 2021.

Buterin wrote the whitepaper for Ethereum in 2013 when he was just 19 years old. He saw a manner to use the blockchain technology that Bitcoin (BTC) is built on and accept it to some other level using smart contracts.

Smart contracts are tiny pieces of cocky-executing code that live on the blockchain. They elevate it from being a sophisticated ledger of transactions to a programmable network. The Ethereum network now hosts thousands of decentralized applications (dApps) and other cryptocurrencies. Several Ethereum alternatives accept sprung upwardly, merely Ethereum remains the ascendant force.

Vitalik Buterin’s groundwork

Would you believe the at present famous 27-twelvemonth-old billionaire did not finish university? The Russian-Canadian quit his computer scientific discipline studies at the University of Waterloo in 2014 to dedicate his time to edifice Ethereum. He’d just been awarded a $100,000 Thiel Fellowship, which — in addition to funding — offers guidance and resources to talented young people to help them pursue their ideas.

Born in Kolomna, Russia (about 100km abroad from Moscow), Buterin moved to Toronto, Canada shortly before his sixth birthday. In Canada, his skills in math and programming meant he quickly found his way to a school for gifted children.

One time Buterin had embraced Bitcoin, he began writing for a Bitcoin blog so he could earn some of the leading crypto. Soon after, he co-founded Bitcoin Magazine with Mihai Alisie who went on to join him in co-founding Ethereum.

Buterin writes on his about.me page that a Globe of Warcraft trauma in 2010 was ane of the drivers behind his dedication to all things decentralized. He said one day Blizzard, the game developers, removed the damage component from his warlock’south spell. “I cried myself to sleep, and on that mean solar day I realized what horrors centralized services can bring,” said Buterin. Decentralization — cutting out the middleman — has been an important part of Ethereum’s development.

Co-founding Ethereum

Buterin’south whitepaper attracted interest from several quarters. Indeed, Ethereum had eight co-founders — which was, according to The Block, a decision Buterin later came to regret. Several went on to create their own crypto projects, such every bit Gavin Forest and Polkadot (DOT), as well as Charles Hoskinson and Cardano (ADA). Of the original founders, but Buterin continues to be involved in Ethereum.

Buterin is a member of the executive lath of the Ethereum Foundation, an organisation that governs Ethereum’s development, controls the treasury, and works to involve the community.

Ethereum today is the backbone for a host of cryptocurrency projects. According to Country of the dApps, it has nearly 3,000 dApps on its platform — about 75% of the full. Information technology’due south also a popular platform for the always-popular non-fungible tokens (NFTs). NFTs are a type of digital collectible that apply smart contracts to record copyright and buying information.

However, the Ethereum network has been a victim of its own success. It struggles with heavy congestion and high gas (transaction) fees. Which is why Buterin has been spending a lot of his time on Eth2 — a safer, faster, more scalable version of Ethereum. Eth2 will besides leave the much-criticized energy-guzzling proof-of-work mining model behind.

Even without Eth2, Ethereum’due south toll has grown over 420% this twelvemonth alone. And it is up over 245,000%% since information technology beginning launched.

Buterin in his own words

The best way to understand anyone is by listening to what they take to say. Here’s our pick of useful or interesting Buterin quotes.

2016: “When I came up with Ethereum, my offset first thought was, okay this thing is besides practiced to be true and I’m going to have five professional cryptographers raining downwardly on me and telling me how stupid I am for not seeing a agglomeration of very obvious flaws,” he said in an interview with Wired.com. “Two weeks later I was extremely surprised that none of that happened. As information technology turned out, the core Ethereum thought was adept, fundamentally, completely, sound.”

2017: Buterin’s advice on Twitter is still true today, “Reminder: cryptocurrencies are however a new and hyper-volatile asset class, and could drib to well-nigh-cypher at any time. Don’t put in more money than you can afford to lose. If you’re trying to figure out where to store your life savings, traditional avails are however your safest bet.”

2021: In reply to a question about the hardest lesson he’d learned through Ethereum, he tweeted, “People are harder to tightly coordinate in pocket-size groups than I expected. Y’all tin can’t simply go everyone to sit effectually in a circumvolve, see each other’due south inherent goodness and become along, especially when huge incentive conflicts are at play.”

Buying Ethereum

If learning almost Buterin has made y’all want to invest in Ethereum, you lot tin can buy information technology from almost top cryptocurrency apps and exchanges. But even an established crypto like Ethereum tin be a volatile and risky investment. Make certain to exercise your own inquiry and follow Buterin’s advice: Only spend money that you can afford to lose.