A programmer, writer, gamer, entrepreneur, the youngest crypto billionaire in the world, thought leader, philosopher, economist, and tech Visionaire — no this isn’t a full-stack tech company but a single person, whose vision and contribution heavily impacted the way the crypto industry develop and frankly speaking, our generation.
Vitalik Buterin — the founder of Ethereum, co-founder of Bitcoin Magazine, an outstanding tech leader, and crypto enthusiast. Having gone a long way from a crypto skeptic to one of the most influential tech leaders in the world, he created the product that has the potential to change the world [and I really mean it!]
In this article, I’d like to get you acquainted with Vitalik, walk you through his main achievements and go into detail on Buterin’s unconventional view of the tech industry.
How Everything Started
I stick to the opinion that extraordinary people have no less than extraordinary backgrounds. A set of socio-political factors should come together for a person to build their vision and develop a creative mindset. Thus, when I bump into an influencer or thought leader who resonates with me ( and there’s only a handful), I wonder what path they had to go through to develop into such a figure, into such a character, so to speak.
Buterin is a highly educated individual, which is certainly felt in his posts. When he was six, his family emigrated to Canada where he went to school and received his first education.
He first heard of Bitcoin from his father at the age of 17 when the cryptocurrency was a newly coined term and the industry itself was in its infancy. At that time, Vitalik was rather skeptical about the idea of trading digital currency and making it competitive with state ones. However, after a while, Bitcoin started gaining momentum and Vitalik got interested in this endeavor.
Several events had a profound effect on the formation of Buterin’s philosophy. At the University of Waterloo, the young student worked as an assistant for Ian Goldberg — one of the founders of Off-The-Record Messaging protocol and the former chairman of the board at Tor Project. At the university, his interest in decentralized systems was only fueled.
Vitalik visited multiple events to get deeper into how cryptocurrencies work and was impressed by the potential this technology could bring to the world. He realized that everything tech leaders were doing around Bitcoin was creating different versions of the same currency, which could support a limited number of features. Instead of maintaining multiple variations, he suggested rewriting the code in Turing-complete programming language, which will allow providing a full spectrum of services to the community.
This project couldn’t have been left unnoticed and, after a series of pitches, Buterin got a grant from Thiel Fellowship, which funds students’ projects to enable them to establish their own startups and work on promising products. That’s basically the story of how Ethereum was born :)
And let’s not forget how the idea of decentralization, smart contracts, and freedom of choice, from a technology perspective, came to him by playing World of Warcraft. Damn…..
“I happily played World of Warcraft during 2007–2010,” Buterin writes in his bio(opens in new tab), “but one day Blizzard removed the damage component from my beloved warlock’s Siphon Life spell. I cried myself to sleep, and on that day I realized what horrors centralized services can bring. I soon decided to quit.”
Vitalik Buterin Today
Forbes 30 under 30, World Technology Award, Fortune 40 under 40, Honorary doctorate — it seems this man has unlimited energy to pursue any endeavor.
Buterin is more than just a crypto entrepreneur and enthusiast. He’s a visionary, whose extraordinary thinking and a fresh look at technology can bring significant changes to the industry and drive its development. To understand his mindset, I recommend you all to watch this phenomenal Podcast with Lex Fridman.
In November 2021, Forbes estimated Buterin’s net worth at $1,46 billion. However, after the massive selloff of Terra UST and the collapse of LUNA, many crypto investors declared their losses, including Buterin. The entrepreneur officially announced that he isn’t a billionaire anymore after the loss of the share of his crypto fortunes. And at this stage, who cares?
Thought Leadership and Philosophy
Buterin has never viewed Ethereum as a pure investment and revenue generation machine. With his visionary perspective of technology, he hopes that the platform will become a tool for sociopolitical experimentation. He believes that today’s use of Defi is limited and it has so much to offer to the world: establishing a truly transparent and fair voting system, reinventing urban planning, providing a universal basic income to citizens, etc. This is what makes him a true inventor, a radical genius, and that deserves my full respect.
All in all, Buterin hopes cryptocurrency will become a counterweight for governments and help communities in establishing true democracy.
However, many are worried that it’s actually possible. As the power in the crypto world is taken over by the community, Buterin is worried that Ethereum will be used to get built things that are profitable. Instead of experimenting with socially important projects, the majority would prefer to entertain themselves with overpriced monkeys and other stuff limiting the product’s potential to a revenue-generating function.
The irony is that despite Buterin’s progressive ideas and leadership, the future of Ethereum is in the hands of the community. Being built as a decentralized ecosystem, the technology is highly dependent on its investors, traders, and other stakeholders. Meantime, Buterin chooses soft power by writing blog posts, sharing knowledge with the community, and contributing with his visionary insights.
The world needs more young entrepreneurs like this and less fanfare. If you are building, get inspired by what this young man has built, learn eat, try it, improve it — repeat.
This article is for informational purposes only. Not all information will be accurate and only reflect the opinion of the author. Consult a financial professional before making any major financial decisions. It should not be considered Financial or Legal Advice. DYOR
