Who is Vitalik Buterin?

Vitalik Buterin is one of the most famous persons in crypto industry. How he made his way to blockchain and Ethereum creation?

Vitalik Buterin is the co-founder and former editor of the Bitcoin Magazine printed magazine, co-founder of the Ethereum and DAICO projects. Vitalik Buterin’s net worth is estimated at 400–500 million US dollars.

Vitalik Buterin is a Russian-Canadian programmer who has gained worldwide fame as a co-founder of the Ethereum cryptocurrency and as one of the founders of Bitcoin Magazine, winner of the World Technology Award 2014 in the IT-Software category. In 2017, Bloomberg included him in the list of the most influential people on the planet, he was also included in the ratings of thirty especially promising young entrepreneurs under 30 years old (Forbes) and forty especially important leaders under 40 years old (Fortune).

In 2018, he was ranked 17th (out of 19) in the first ever Forbes list of wealthiest individuals who have become rich in the crypto industry, with the fortune of $400–500 million.

Childhood

The future cryptocurrency genius was born on January 31, 1994, in the town of Kolomna near Moscow. His father Dmitry and mother Natalia were studying at a computer science faculty in one of the capital’s universities at that time. Their grandparents helped them to raise their son. Little Vitalik received his first computer as a gift from his father at the age of 4. The computer became his favourite toy. It is noteworthy that the most interesting activity for him was not video games, but writing macros in Excel.

In 2000, their family emigrated to Toronto. The boy had an innate predisposition to a precise science. So already at the age of 6, he knew by heart 20 digits after the decimal point “pi”, at the age of 7 he invented and created a game with Excel. In it, everything was controlled and regulated by strict formulas with graphs and instantaneous calculations. In the 3rd grade of school, he performed mathematical operations with three-digit numbers in his mind much faster than his classmates, and he was transferred to the class for gifted children. At the age of 10, he became acquainted with the C++ programming language.

Then he attended Toronto’s private Abelard High School. Four years there, he later described it as one of the most interesting and productive in his life. He liked the close communication between students and teachers there, the progressive form of presentation of educational material, and its in-depth study. As an adult, he was sceptical of traditional education, believing it is more important to teach children to think and discuss rather than to memorize certain facts or concepts.

Way to crypto

In 2011, the boy first heard from his father about digital currency — Bitcoin. In the beginning, he was sceptical — can virtual money have intrinsic value? But then he was imbued with the revolutionary idea of restructuring the entire economy, he began to visit the cryptocurrency forums, study the basics of Bitcoin project, earn cryptocurrency writing review and analytical articles. He spent his first 8.5 bitcoins to buy a T-shirt.

At that time Romanian programmer Mihai Alicy, who is familiar with Butterin’s articles, offered him to establish Bitcoin Magazine together. They started publishing it electronically and in paper form. Vitalik wrote more than 400 articles here.

After school, he went to Waterloo University but left after his first year of study to study blockchain. His father did not approve his decision: he advised his son to get a higher education, which guaranteed him a job at any prestigious company, including Apple or Google. But Vitalik insisted on it. In 2013, he went on a journey around the world, getting to know the same enthusiasts, programmers who were involved in software development and application of the blockchain not only for finance but also for other things. After researching various cryptographic projects, he began to understand the limitations of Bitcoin. When he was in Israel, the idea of creating a universal crypto platform came to him.

Creating Ethereum

Later that year, he returned to Toronto and wrote a white paper that revealed the potential benefits of his online services concept based on smart contracts called Ethereum. He then sent it out to fifteen friends for comments. They, in turn, showed the project to their friends. A couple of weeks later, about 20 people expressed their willingness to take part in its implementation.

In particular, the Ethereum platform development team included programmers Gavin Wood and Michael Alicy, a supporter of decentralized technologies Anthony Di Iorio, and mathematician Charles Hiskinson. They raised funds to implement the project through crowdsale. In the same period, Buterin received a $100 000 Teal scholarship for young people who want to implement their innovative ideas rather than waste time in colleges.

In 2014, he introduced Ethereum to the public at the North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami. In July 2015, his platform was launched. A gifted and versatile programmer was involved in the creation of other projects, such as CryptoKitties. In addition, he worked in the editorial office of Ledger magazine, where original articles about cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies were published.

In May 2016, for the first time after his departure from Russia, he came to his home country where he met with representatives of the Central Bank and the government. Later a group of independent crypto enthusiasts created an Ethereum fork called Ethereum Classic, price of which hovering around $3.73 mark right now.

His latest achievements

In 2017, Vitalik was a guest at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, where he met with Vladimir Putin. They discussed the development of Ethereum and the possibility of applying the blockchain in Russia.

In January 2018, he resigned as a general partner of Fenbushi Capital, a Chinese fund specializing in investments in blockchain startups, but stayed on the staff as a consultant. In February of the same year, he donated 2.4 million in cryptocurrency Ethereum to SENS Research Foundation, working on anti-ageing methods.

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