Vitalik Buterin: Co-founder of Ethereum

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Bittime  - Vitalik Buterin, a Russian-Canadian writer and programmer, has been an active figure in the Bitcoin community since 2011.

He is the co-founder of Bitcoin magazine and co-writes articles for it. However, he is increasingly known as the brains behind Ethereum, a blockchain platform that functions as a decentralized application (DApp) network.

Vitalik Buterin, Founder of Ethereum

In 2013, Buterin embarked on a six-month trip around the world to interact with Bitcoin developers.

The goal is to explore ways to improve the Bitcoin blockchain. He envisions creating a more versatile and robust blockchain platform by extending Bitcoin's principles into a broader context, such as upgrading from a calculator to a smartphone.

This led to the development of Ethereum, a blockchain that supports various functions through smart contracts, agreements that can be programmed to execute automatically.

Unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum's focus is not limited to just being a cryptocurrency; it became a platform for building decentralized applications using Ether (ETH), its native digital currency.

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Buterin's Early Life

Born on January 31, 1994, in Kolomna, Russia, Buterin moved to Canada with his parents at a young age.

He showed extraordinary talent in mathematics and programming from an early age, standing out among his peers. Despite his academic brilliance, he often felt disconnected from social activities.

While attending high school at the Abelard School in Toronto, Buterin's attitude towards education underwent a significant transformation.

He developed an unstoppable passion for knowledge, prioritizing learning above all else.

Although dedicated to academics, he found peace playing World of Warcraft, although eventually abandoned it due to dissatisfaction with centralized gaming services.

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Buterin's Journey into the Crypto World

Buterin discovered Bitcoin in 2011, initially skeptical of its value. However, as he delved deeper into its principles, he became more and more interested.

Unable to afford Bitcoin at first, he began writing articles for Bitcoin-related publications, earning Bitcoin as compensation.

His informative articles caught the attention of Mihai Alisie, a fellow Bitcoin enthusiast, leading to the co-founding of Bitcoin magazine.

His involvement in the crypto world intensified, prompting him to drop out of university to focus on crypto-related activities full-time.

Inspired by the limitations of existing blockchain projects, Buterin envisioned the idea of ​​Ethereum. He envisions a blockchain capable of supporting a variety of applications beyond simple transactions.

With Ethereum, he aims to introduce a Turing-complete programming language, enabling developers to create complex decentralized applications.

The birth of Ethereum

Buterin outlined his vision for Ethereum in a white paper in late 2013, attracting significant interest from his peers.

Together with the core team, including Alisie and Anthony Di Iorio, Buterin publicly announced Ethereum in January 2014.

The project gained momentum, culminating in an Initial Coin Offering ( ICO) to fund development.

The ICO raised substantial funds, enabling the creation of the Ethereum Foundation, tasked with overseeing the project's development.

Despite initial challenges, Ethereum's fundraising campaign proved successful, forming the basis for Ethereum's evolution into one of the most influential blockchain platforms.

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Ethereum Design Principles

Ethereum's design philosophy revolves around simplicity, universality, modularity, agility, non-discrimination, and non-censorship. These principles guide its development, ensuring a versatile and inclusive platform for decentralized applications.

In summary, Buterin's journey from talented student to pioneering figure in crypto illustrates the transformative potential of blockchain technology, with Ethereum as proof of his visionary contributions.

Evolution and Challenges of Ethereum

The Ethereum network continues to undergo upgrades, such as the London and Berlin upgrades, along with the Shanghai hard fork, to perfect its basic structure.

These updates represent Ethereum's continued progress towards the long-discussed Ethereum 2.0 (Eth2) consensus layer upgrade.

Challenges Faced by Ethereum

DAO Attack

In addition to facilitating decentralized applications (DApps), Ethereum enables the creation and operation of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs).

However, the DAO experienced significant setbacks when it fell victim to attacks due to vulnerabilities in its source code.

To mitigate the damage, Buterin proposed a soft fork involving code snippets to blacklist attackers and stop the movement of stolen funds.

However, the attackers opposed this move, claiming legal acquisition of the funds and threatening legal consequences for any attempted seizure.

As a result, the Ethereum blockchain underwent a hard fork to recover the stolen funds, resulting in a controversial split into two blockchains: Ethereum (the latest version) and Ethereum Classic (the original chain). This event sparked debate regarding the immutable and censorship-resistant nature of blockchain, challenging the moral and philosophical foundations of Ethereum's leadership and technology.

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Ethereum Scalability Issues and the Transition to PoS Consensus

Ethereum's popularity caused a spike in network fees, making transactions too expensive for ordinary users. Recognizing the urgency to address network scalability and congestion, Ethereum is pursuing sharding as a solution in its Merge upgrade.

Sharding involves dividing the Ethereum network into a chain of shards to efficiently distribute network load, with the goal of significantly increasing transaction throughput.

Merge marks the integration of Ethereum's native execution layer (mainnet) with the new PoS (Beacon Chain) consensus layer. This transition eliminates energy-intensive mining, switching to securing the network through staked ETH.

However, this shift represents a departure from the decentralized strategy previously adopted by developers and miners, leading to changing expectations among token holders, who now view Ether more as an investment asset than a decentralized currency.

The influence of Ethereum and Buterin in China

Buterin has been actively involved with the Chinese Ethereum community, participating in conferences, meetups and events to promote Ethereum adoption and discuss its potential applications.

His efforts to bridge the linguistic gap include conducting interviews in Mandarin, collaborating with Chinese media, and leveraging Chinese social media platforms.

In 2016, the ChinaLedger Alliance was founded, aiming to develop open-source blockchain protocols tailored to China's regulatory requirements, with Buterin as an advisor.

Notably, Buterin's association with Fenbushi Venture Capital, a well-known Chinese venture capital firm, specializing in blockchain investments, confirms his significant influence in China's blockchain ecosystem.

Ethereum and Buterin's Impact on Russia

Buterin's contributions to blockchain technology have attracted significant attention in Russia, where he is recognized as a leading figure.

He has been actively engaging with blockchain enthusiasts and Russian businesses, defending Ethereum's adoption and discussing its potential applications.

In his interactions with Russian authorities, Buterin has highlighted the potential benefits of blockchain technology, gaining support from leading institutions such as Sberbank, Russia's largest state-owned bank, which joined the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance.

Additionally, Buterin's philanthropic efforts, including substantial donations to COVID-19 relief in India, have further raised his profile in Russia.

Philanthropic Efforts and Awards

Buterin's philanthropic contributions, including significant donations to charitable causes and organizations, have earned him widespread recognition and awards.

He has been honored with prestigious awards such as the Thiel Fellowship Award and the World Technology Network (WTN) prize for IT software, confirming his impact and contribution to the field of blockchain technology and development.

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Future Plans for Ethereum and Buterin

Buterin visualized Ethereum's important role in the development of the metaverse, emphasizing its potential to facilitate cross-platform interaction and identity through solutions such as the Ethereum Name Service (ENS).

Additionally, he anticipates widespread adoption of privacy-preserving technologies such as zk-SNARKs, which he believes will revolutionize privacy in the coming decades.

At the Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC) in 2022, Buterin outlined Ethereum's future plans, highlighting updates aimed at addressing scalability, efficiency, and security issues.

These updates include transitioning to proof-of-stake (Merge), implementing sharding for scalability (Surge), introducing Verkle trees for efficiency (Verge), reducing storage requirements (Purge), and improving quantum resilience (Splurge), demonstrating commitment Ethereum to continue to make improvements and innovations.

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