Vitalik Buterin is one of the common names you may have heard within the blockchain space. In this guide, we will answer one of the most common questions – “who is Vitalik Buterin?”
If you are new to blockchain and have just started reading about blockchain, then it’s normal to have questions regarding its existence. Ethereum – now of the most popular blockchain platforms in the market was founded by Vitalik Buterin.
He is one of the co-founders of Ethereum and Bitcoin Magazine. From the look of it and his achievements so far, he is a gifted millennial who was only 21 years old when Ethereum first launched. Let’s see who this man is and how did he launch one of the most successful cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology in the world.
Excited to build your skill in Ethereum development by leveraging the ethers.js library? Enroll Now in Ethers.Js Blockchain Developer Course!
Who Is Vitalik Buterin?
Vitalik Buterin is a Russian-Canadian programmer who devised and founded Ethereum. He was born on January 31st, 1994, in Kolomna, Russia. When he was only six years old, his parents immigrated to Canada.
Here is an interesting fact from his childhood, when he was just in third grade – he was placed in a class for gifted children in his elementary school. Well, you can say Vitalik Buterin was destined for something big from the very beginning.
He is good at mathematics and can add three digits numbers in his head faster than an average human. He was also interested in computer programming from a very early age. His father, Dmitry Buterin, was a computer scientist himself.
When he was 17, he was into playing World of Warcraft, just like any other 17 years old would be. However, he got interested in something else as well –Bitcoin.
Initially, Vitalik Buterin was not much invested in the idea of cryptocurrency, but his father was. Over a short period, this new technology grew on him. Keep in mind that at the time, even the most experienced financial experts did not know what Bitcoin was and what it would become.
The Ethereum founder attended Abelard School in Toronto and went on to enroll at the University of Waterloo. It was then that he got even more involved in Bitcoin.
He started writing forum posts about cryptocurrency at a rate of 5 Bitcoins. It was around this time that the skinny and nerdy college kid decided to pursue this full field time. He became so interested in cryptocurrency that he even left the university to invest all his time in his newly found passion.
Enroll Now: Ethereum Development Fundamentals Course
Co-founding Bitcoin Magazine
Before he became the Ethereum founder, he actually co-founded Bitcoin Magazine. It was during his university days that his posts about Bitcoin picked up momentum, and his views about this novice technology were considered insightful. As he was seen as the authority on the subject, so to make the most out of his newly found fame, he co-founded the Bitcoin magazine along with another Bitcoin enthusiast, Mihai Alisie, in 2012.
The Bitcoin magazine was founded when he was still in university. It was a hectic time for him as he was taking courses at the university and serving as the Head Writer for the magazine at the same time. The Bitcoin Magazine can be regarded as Buterin’s first success as the magazine turned out to be a great influencer for Bitcoin.
How Vitalik Buterin Became the Ethereum Founder
When you search ‘Who is Vitalik Buterin,’ the answer is the Ethereum founder most of the time. It was Ethereum that made Vitalik Buterin what he is today. In reality, when he wrote the Ethereum white paper, he did not anticipate that it would do so well. However, he is not the sole founder of Ethereum. He is one of the co-founders.
The Ethereum founder almost believed that it will be criticized by crypto analysts and would be debunked fairly sooner. To his surprise, instead of getting criticized, his idea received recognition and praise. This was the point when all of it started, and Vitalik Buterin became all the more certain that this is the way to go.
After all, he had dedicated his life to cryptocurrency, and it was only natural for him to take his efforts one step ahead.
What Is Ethereum?
Ethereum is an open-source, public, and blockchain-based platform that has scripting functionality. The Ethereum network lets users use all facilities within the blockchain for Ether, the token of the Ethereum platform.
Ethereum was established to overcome the limitation of the Bitcoin protocol. Bitcoin changed the way global transactions worked and removed the third party from the process. It gave birth to a system that recorded transactions in a distributed public ledger that works under the proof-of-stake consensus algorithm.
The blockchain technology for Bitcoin had its limitations. For security purposes, the protocol written for Bitcoin was deliberately designed to handle non-complex operations only. Therefore, complex transactions between a payer and payee could not be executed under this blockchain protocol even though the idea of such a blockchain had been in the works for quite some time then. Also, it was drastically slower and somewhat flawed to a great extent that no enterprise companies will use it.
This is where the Ethereum founder started to work on a better version of Bitcoin. Now, Ethereum is one of the well-known platforms on the market.
Want to learn more about the Ethereum Technology? Enroll Now: The Complete Ethereum Technology
An Upgraded Version of Bitcoin?
Vitalik Buterin realized the limited protocol of Bitcoin and decided to use Turing-complete programming to create such a blockchain technology, capable of creating all kinds of applications and Smart Contracts.
More so, the public chain is easier to use for developers as it’s the perfect platform where they can develop dApps (decentralized applications).
In fact, there are already many applications out on the market that uses Ethereum as the base technology. One of the prominent niches are the decentralized finance applications, which are getting a lot of traction at present.
Enterprise Ethereum
But what about the Enterprise companies? As far as we know, Ethereum is a public blockchain, so companies can’t use that technology because of certain privacy issues. This is why the private version of Ethereum became live. Although the founder of Ethereum – Vitalik, wasn’t directly connected to the new launch, he still mentioned his interest in collaborating with the initiative. To this day, Enterprise Ethereum uses features from the public version, and they are both connected in every way.
More so, it also features Ethereum smart contacts that can offer private contracts within companies. It’s a wonderful feature that any company can use.
Vitalik Buterin Net Worth
If you are wondering that the founder of Ethereum must have made a fortune from his creation, you are not entirely wrong. Ethereum’s market cap is valued above $193 billion, and he is the head of the second most successful cryptocurrency in the world.
In February 2016, he revealed how much of his own cryptocurrency ETH he has. At the time, he held 630,000 ETH. After a few months, he liquidated one-fourth of those. Even after that move, he has plenty of ETH left.
The interesting thing is that because Ethereum is such a transparent blockchain, anyone can keep track of how much ETH he has at any time. At this point, he currently may own 365,000 Ether, and at the time of this writing, the net worth of Vitalik Buterin is around $584 million. But that’s not all; his Ethereum white paper is also worth more than $500 million.
The transparency about the system and Vitalik Buterin net worth makes Ethereum so trustable. We have seen enough schemes and scandals revolving around cryptocurrencies to have our reservations. However, the founder of Ethereum has earned credibility fair and square. It would not be wrong to say that Vitalik Buterin represents the true and positive face of cryptocurrency.
Hyperledger Fabric is another blockchain platform in direct competition with Ethereum. Check out the Ethereum vs Hyperledger Fabric to understand how they are different.
A Staunch Supporter of Decentralization
It goes without saying that Buterin supports the decentralization movement. It is in its early stages only, and the world is gradually moving towards blockchain technology. We are only beginning to see the possibilities, and there is much more to come. The founder of Ethereum is one of the masterminds behind this and in that sense.
A shared economy is going hand in hand with decentralization, and big corporations are stepping onboard, and you know it is big if companies like Microsoft are peeping into it. Cryptocurrencies are thriving mainly because of decentralization. See how decentralized apps are changing our world.
Final Thoughts
So, now you know who Vitalik Buterin is. He is an entrepreneur. Most definitely a technology genius. Also, he is the founder of Ethereum and a mastermind behind the success of the second most popular cryptocurrency in the world.
He is what the world needs today as we strive to improve our economies, protect our data, and prepare for the future. There are many out there who still think cryptocurrency is a hoax, but the truth is people like Buterin are very real, and what they produce is far from a hoax. Not only cryptocurrency, but the main focus is the underlying technology which is blockchain technology. If you want to learn about Ethereum, then enroll in our Ethereum development course now!
