Vitaly Dmitrievich Buterin is a Russian-born Canadian computer programmer and entrepreneur who founded Ethereum.
He was born on 31 January 2021in Kolomna, Russia, and relocated to Canada when he was six. He is one of the five founding members of Ethereum and the company’s CEO to date.
Buterin: Academic Background
Vitalik Buterin was a gifted child and was recognized for his special abilities in Mathematics even in his elementary school days.
He showed interest in advanced Mathematics, Economics, and Programming from an early age.
He enrolled in a private school in Toronto, called Aelard School, and earned his high school diploma in 2011.
He then attended the University of Waterloo, where he worked as a research assistant for Ian Goldberg, a cryptographer and former chairman of the Tor Project.
In the university, he also got the opportunity to take advanced classes that gave him better exposure to the subjects he specialized in.
While in University, he participated in and won the bronze medal in the International Olympiad in Informatics took place in Italy, in 2012.
Buterin discontinued his formal education once he received the Thiel Scholarship of $100,000 in 2014, to work on Ethereum full-time.
Although he couldn’t complete his bachelor’s, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Basel for his contribution to Economics.
Career
Vitalik Buterin got to learn about Bitcoin from his father who was a computer scientist, in 2011, at the age of 17.
Although he was a skeptic in the beginning, as he learned more about its potential, he became more invested in the topic and started attending Bitcoin forums. This was how he got an opportunity to work as a writer for Bitcoin Weekly started by one of the enthusiasts in the forum.
He was offered 5 tokens per article and even though the site didn’t last for long, he wrote a few Bitcoin articles for the publication.
A few months later, in 2011, he met Mihai Alisie, a Romanian Bitcoin enthusiast who proposed the idea of starting a Bitcoin Magazine, where Buterin ended up being a Co-founder and lead writer.
The print edition of the magazine came out in 2012, and as the publication got serious, their schedules became more hectic and this was when Buterin decided to quit his studies.
Buterin started traveling more as he wanted to meet with developers from different countries, and once he returned from his journey in 2013, he published a white paper proposing Ethereum.
He was also selected for a job in Ripple, a payment protocol network, which he lost due to a visa issue, and had worked with Ledger, a cryptocurrency magazine, as a member of the editorial board.
Ethereum
Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain network that is known as the next-generation web. Buterin co-founded the company in 2015 as a platform for Decentralized Applications (DApps), Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs), and Decentralized Finances.
Ethereum enables trading, staking, storage of NFTs, web browsing, social media access, and even playing games through which the users can earn interest on their holdings.
The lack of censorship makes this a more inclusive platform where everyone has a voice.
The native token of Ethereum, Ether, has an infinite supply and acts as a utility token rather than a token of value.
The token enters circulation as a reward for activities like mining and staking and therefore does not get devalued beyond use even during inflation.
The Ethereum white paper published in 2013 detailed smart contracts, that are set to execute when the terms and conditions are met.
The whole network is now managed through smart contracts and blockchain, giving more control to the users over their funds.
If Bitcoin is considered digital gold, Ethereum is the digital silver. It currently is the second-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization, and even with a few drawbacks like scalability and accessibility issues, the platform continues to gain popularity among crypto enthusiasts with its potential prospects, especially with companies like PayPal adding cryptocurrency support to its features.
Vitalik Buterin has received several awards and recognitions for his innovative ideas and contributions to the crypto industry.
He has made it to the Forbes’ 30 Under 30 List as well as the 40 Under 40 List, was ranked in Time 100, in 2021, and Fortune the Ledger 40 Under 40 List of 2018.
Vitalik Buterin still focuses on more research and studies to develop the project he initiated and make up for the shortcomings of the platform that could grow beyond expectations in the future.
