Today, let’s talk to you about a big brother in the currency circle who is as famous as Satoshi Nakamoto, the founder of Taifang who is known as “V God” in the world, and a young man born in the 90s, Vitalik Buterin.
Buterin is a young man with a Russian hacker background who vows to use blockchain to subvert the real economic system. His talents are amazing and his skills are superb. Big names in the technology and financial circles are all amazed by his professional skills.
If Satoshi Nakamoto is the creator of the blockchain, then the 24-year-old Buterin single-handedly pushed the blockchain to the top of the wave.
Buterin was born in Russia in 1994. In 1998, 4-year-old Buterin received a computer as a gift from his father. It was the first computer in his life. Buterin curiously explored this novel gadget, which was different from other people playing games. What's more, Buterin was obsessed with writing programs in Microsoft Excel that could calculate on their own.
When he was 7 years old, he created a complex document called "Rabbit Encyclopedia", which is a small world made up of rabbits, but the rules of the world conform to very strict formulas, and it is full of mathematics, charts and calculations;
He can mentally calculate three digits more than twice as fast as his peers;
It took him several months to become fluent in Chinese;
He also looks very much in line with a geek: thin as a bamboo pole, with a giant head on his back, speaks very fast, and often has erratic eyes. Some people say he is autistic, and more people are willing to call him "an alien who is incompatible with the world." ".
Buterin: Why can't I have a 75% average like some normal people?
Contacted Bitcoin at the age of 17 and founded Bitcoin Magazine
At the age of 17, Buterin began to get involved with Bitcoin, which was just 2 years old. This is largely due to his father, Dmitry Buterin, the co-founder of Blockgeeks Labs, a blockchain incubator.
Buterin, who had just entered the University of Waterloo in Canada at the time, was thinking about Bitcoin. His only idea is to go out and communicate with blockchain enthusiasts around the world and learn from each other. In 2013, Buterin dropped out of Waterloo and began traveling around the world, studying in Amsterdam, San Francisco, Israel and other cities.
While studying abroad, he also began to write articles about Bitcoin, charging five Bitcoins for one article (at the time, five Bitcoins were only worth $3.50, if you think about it today). When he earned 20 BTC, he took 8.5 to buy a shirt. (Not even close to the guy who spent 10,000 Bitcoins to buy pizza)
After that, this part-time job stopped because the website was closed. In late 2011, Buterin gradually became famous in the community. A man from Romania invited him to co-found "Bitcoin Magazine" as a co-founder and serve as the chief writer. people. The magazine was later acquired by BTC Media.
In 2013, the Bitcoin exchange rate exploded from around US$10 the previous year to a maximum of US$49. The Bitcoins Buterin had previously earned became the first pot of gold in his life.
At the end of 2013, 19-year-old Vitalik Buterin sent a white paper to his friends, proposing the design of a new Bitcoin. This new Bitcoin will be based on a universal programming language and can be used to create a variety of applications, such as social networking, transactions, games...
Buterin sent it to 15 people, who in turn sent it to their friends. Spread from one to ten, Buterin’s idea quickly exploded in the Bitcoin community.
Buterin thought that his idea still had many loopholes, but who would have thought that it would receive unanimous praise. Many people were so excited about this avant-garde idea that they came to him personally hoping to collaborate with Buterin.
At that time, Buterin had just received a $100,000 scholarship. Before the money became popular, Buterin used it to develop a decentralized computing platform based on blockchain technology, named Etherum.
At the same time, Buterin also designed a new cryptocurrency for Ethereum—Ether. In 2015, Ethereum was officially launched.
In two years, the emergence of Ethereum has activated the huge potential behind the blockchain: the price of Ethereum increased 85 times in 2017; ICO, founded by Ethereum, became the most popular method of crowdfunding in 2017, with the global ICOs raised more than US$4 billion; in 2017, the total market value of global electronic currencies soared from US$18 billion at the beginning of the year to US$560 billion.
Hacker attack, Ethereum’s market value evaporated by US$500 million, Buterin changed the rules and created 2 Ethereums
In May 2016, Ethereum’s decentralized organization The DAO completed a crowdfunding of US$150 million. The DAO is an Ethereum venture capital institution that invests in start-ups and projects in Ethereum through smart contracts. The characteristic of The DAO is that it is not controlled by any organization. All members holding DAO tokens vote to decide whether to invest in Ethereum applications. This crowdfunding project quickly attracted the attention of the public, including hackers.
On June 18, 2016, The DAO was attacked by an anonymous hacker, and 50 million US dollars worth of Ethereum disappeared. This became the largest digital robbery in history. Suddenly, all Ethereum holders panicked. Ethereum suddenly fell from US$20 to US$10, and its market value evaporated by US$500 million.
Buterin, who was pushed to the forefront, made a bold decision - to update the Ethereum blockchain and correct The DAO.
This move immediately caused dissatisfaction among many people. Whether it is Bitcoin or Ethereum, changes and restorations were not allowed at the beginning of their creation. Many people believe that this violates the original intention of the blockchain.
Due to the decentralization of Ethereum, Buterin's decision must be approved by the majority of users. As a result, Ethereum was divided into two factions. One faction was Ethereum Classic, which insisted on the original intention of the blockchain that cannot be changed and stayed to continue to maintain the original Ethereum; the other faction was still Ethereum and was led by Buterin. , they updated Ethereum’s many security vulnerabilities.
Fortunately, the outcome of this fork was that Ethereum survived the crisis safely - more than 50 million US dollars lost were recovered; both classic Ethereum and Ethereum itself continued to develop. Ethereum, whose market value fell to $5, skyrocketed to $700 a year and a half later.
But even though Ethereum is developing so well, Buterin is not happy. Today’s Ethereum does not seem to be developing in the right direction according to Buterin’s vision.
Buterin does not hope that Ethereum is just an investment bubble during a carnival, but can penetrate into all industries and decentralize the world's economy, society, and culture. This year, Buterin traveled around to popularize Ethereum knowledge in the United States, Russia, Canada, Asia and other countries, hoping to help people form a correct understanding of Ethereum. Although capital, blockchain and Ethereum have entered the public eye, there is still a long way to go before Buterin wants to achieve the ambitious goals.
