$ETH

20 lesser-known points about Ethereum (ETH):

1. *Ethereum's creator, Vitalik Buterin, was just 19 when he proposed the idea*.

2. *Ethereum's ICO raised $18 million in 2014*, a significant amount for its time.

3. *The Ethereum network went live on July 20, 2015*, with the Frontier release.

4. *Ethereum's gas mechanism helps prevent spam* and denial-of-service attacks.

5. *Smart contracts on Ethereum can be written in multiple languages*, including Solidity, Vyper, and Serpent.

6. *Ethereum's Virtual Machine (EVM) executes smart contracts*, ensuring deterministic behavior.

7. *Ethereum's decentralized nature allows for censorship-resistant applications*.

8. *The DAO hack in 2016 led to a hard fork*, creating Ethereum Classic (ETC).

9. *Ethereum's proof-of-work algorithm is Ethash*, designed to be ASIC-resistant.

10. Ethereum 2.0 (Serenity) aims to improve scalability, security, and sustainability.

11. Sharding is a key component of Ethereum 2.0, allowing for parallel transaction processing.

12. *Ethereum's Beacon Chain coordinates validators* in the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism.

13. Validators on Ethereum 2.0 must stake at least 32 ETH to participate in the network.

14. *Ethereum's Layer 2 scaling solutions include Optimism, Arbitrum, and Polygon*.

15. *Ethereum's ecosystem includes a wide range of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications*.

16. *Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on Ethereum have gained significant popularity*, with platforms like OpenSea.

17. *Ethereum's developer community is one of the largest and most active* in the blockchain space.

18. *Ethereum's upgrade process involves hard forks*, which can be contentious.

19. *Ethereum's gas limit determines the maximum computational work* per block.

20. *Ethereum's future roadmap includes further scalability improvements*, such as danksharding.

These points highlight some of the lesser-known aspects of Ethereum, its history, technology, and ecosystem.