Ten years ago, Ethereum was just an idea for Reddit. Today it exists as one of the most important innovations in modern finance.
Co-founded by Vitalik Buterin in 2013, Ethereum began with a vision of moving beyond the recognized limits of Bitcoin.
The Early Ethereum
That vision sparked interest from fellow technicians, including Gavin Wood, who will write Ethereum Yellow Paper, an important technical document that will help justify the project.
In mid-2014, before Ethereum became famous for its cryptographic design, the Ethereum Foundation began pre-public sale. ETH was sold at an initial fixed exchange rate of 2,000 ETH per BTC, gradually dipped to 1,337 ETH over 42 days per BTC.
The sale exceeded 31,000 btc, worth around $18.3 million at the time, and distributed ETH of 60 million people.
These funds laid the foundation for Ethereum’s network development and community growth.
Ethereum has since grown to become the second largest blockchain by market capitalization. It features countless innovations, ranging from Defi and NFTS to Layer-2 scaling and zero-knowledge proof.
The network also received major milestones, including the DAO crisis, subsequent hard forks, and merges that moved Ethereum from proof of work to proof of proof.
Consensys CEO and co-founder of Ethereum, Joseph Lubin highlighted the resilience of the protocol over the past decade:
“Ethereum demonstrates its downtime and proves itself an anti-Fragill definition. It has continuously evolved to serve as a trustworthy trust layer in the fast-growing digital world.”
Rubin also pointed out that Ethereum’s appeal now goes far beyond the world of code origins. Finance giants like BlackRock, JPMorgan and Visa were attracted by their programmatic nature and security and began construction on their networks.
He pointed out:
“Ethereum offers transnational, transparent, decentralized financial architecture, paving a whole new pathway for growth and innovation, enabling much larger economic and political institutions for people and communities.”
What’s next for Ethereum?
Tomasz Stańczak, co-executive director of the Ethereum Foundation, believes that the network is poised to play a central role in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics and distributed infrastructure.
He says Ethereum aims to become the backbone of a safer, open and programmable digital world over the next decade.
He said:
“Ethereum is designed for this future. Privacy. Censorship resistance. Security. Open source of the root. These are values, not features. So people come to Ethereum to build their dreams.”
Co-executive Director Hsiao-Wei Wang reiterated this vision, saying that Ethereum will become a “global computer” seamlessly embedded in everyday life.
However, Wang pointed out that realizing this vision would require a balance between innovation and stability, scalability and accessibility, privacy and affordability. The executive said:
“As we grow, the ecosystem needs to maintain a commitment to where it started. The contribution of distributed & robust networks, unauthorized applications, global open source. Winning does not depend on a single entity. Resilience is created by the growth of the entire community.”
Meanwhile, Rubin said:
“Beyond finance, Ethereum serves as a critical infrastructure for the next wave of innovation across a network of decentralized social graphs, stable, decentralized identity systems, distributed physical infrastructure, data marketing and autonomous AI agents.”