Cindicator Spotlight: Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin
Table of Contents
- How did Vitalik grow up?
- How did Vitalik get his start in tech?
- Ethereum is brought to life
- Venturing into the future
- Wrapping up
Welcome to Cindicator Spotlight! We are thrilled to have you here. The crypto world is full of fun and exciting events that are taking place each and every day. In the Cindicator Spotlight series, we are going to take a deep dive into popular coins, prominent leaders, innovative projects, and everything in-between to shine a light on hot topics in the crypto sphere.
Today we are diving into the life of Vitalik Buterin, how he grew up, how he got his start in the tech industry, how Ethereum came to be, and what the future could look like.
It’s no secret that Vitalik Buterin is a large contributor to the crypto and blockchain community as he is the face of Ethereum, the second largest blockchain by market cap. In fact, many of the crypto users, developers, and enthusiasts that exist today came as a result of the use cases revolving around Ethereum’s smart contract technology.
Time to dive in and discover more about Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin…
How did Vitalik grow up?
Vitalik was originally born in Russia and only spent a short amount time there. A handful of years after he was born, him and his parents moved to North America, specifically to Canada. Canada was, and still is, full of innovative work options that Vitalik’s parents could partake in. His parents wanted the family to live a good life, and Canada was a thriving option for them.
Vitalik did not have a problem in school, as he was, and still is, quite intelligent. He was particularly good at solving math problems, and he also took a liking to online video games such as World of Warcraft. The gaming frenzy ended for Vitalik when the game creators changed an aspect of Vitalik’s main character, causing him to lose faith in the centralized gaming industry.
The World of Warcraft hiccup was one of the main catalysts that turned Vitalik towards pursuing decentralized technology. He did not enjoy the fact that a single entity could single-handedly disarm what he had worked hard to achieve throughout his gaming journey.
How did Vitalik get his start in tech?
You could say that Vitalik got his kickstart in tech after he had finished 12th grade as a senior in high school. Vitalik attended the University of Waterloo, where he served as a research assistant for a cryptographer named Ian Goldberg, former board chairman for the Tor Project.
In addition, when Vitalik was 17, he learned about Bitcoin when his father had spoken to him about it. Although we don’t know exactly what his father’s exact words were or what his background was, we know that it was enough to spark interest in his son, who then went on to perform research on his own.
In fact, when Vitalik caught the Bitcoin bug, he then went on to write for Bitcoin Weekly, which ended up going under. Later that year, Bitcoin Magazine, a new printed publication, is where Vitalik started as co-founder and also as the lead writer.
Ethereum is brought to life
Vitalik was amazed by the technology that Bitcoin brought to the table. It wasn’t even about the money at that time, but the advances in coding and cryptography that would be a game-changer for the entire world to witness.
He knew that Bitcoin was breakthrough technology, but yet, there was something missing. Something that could be added… a necessary component to the future of blockchain: programmable smart contracts. A scripting language to create apps, or dApps, if you will. Ethereum would combine mining and software development into one single platform.
The Ethereum whitepaper was released in 2013, where he originally wanted to add a scripting language to Bitcoin. This notion did not gain traction, which is when Vitalik decided that a new platform was necessary to carry out the actions and vision that he truly aimed to achieve.
And yes, you guessed it… The genesis of Ethereum came into existence.
Venturing into the future
Vitalik, and thousands of developers across the globe, are still in innovation mode, as the Ethereum Merge just took place, taking Ethereum from a proof-of-work consensus model to proof-of-stake, lowering the energy consumption by over 99% globally.
Ethereum is only 55% done according to Vitalik, as the vision of Ethereum becoming the “world’s computer” is coming to light. The merge was only 1 of 5 key upgrades to the network that will happen over the coming years. Upgrades known as The Surge, The Verge, The Purge, and The Splurge are what is coming in the future (yes, they all rhyme).
Features contained inside these upgrades include being able to withdraw a portion of staked ETH as well as rewards, sharding for increased network capacity, verkle trees for scalability, reducing necessary space on hard drives, and general housekeeping for smooth transitions and simpler upgrades in the future.
Wrapping up
Can you imagine a world without Ethereum, and the DeFi and NFT ecosystems that have been built on it? Right now is just the beginning for Vitalik Buterin, developers, and retail investors alike. Phase 1 of 5 upgrades has been completed, and the network still has a long way to go to reach full maturity.
The question remains, will you still be following closely, or, will you fall off and follow a shiny object that came along instead? The choice is yours as the crypto industry is hot right now, even despite falling exchange rates. Decisions made either way will impact your future financial picture.
As for Vitalik Buterin, he will go down in the history books as one of the men who changed the world as we know it.
Thank you for tuning in.
And as always, remember... Keep your fingers on the Pulse!
The following video is Vitalik himself talking about Ethereum and where it is headed as we move towards the future.
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Author: Ken Melendez
✍️ Head of Content @ Cindicator
📊 Certified Bitcoin Professional
🔐 Blockchain Chamber - Chapter President
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Disclaimer
Information in the article does not, nor does it purport to, constitute any form of professional investment advice, recommendation, or independent analysis.