As Ethereum approaches its tenth anniversary, a long-buried past is unveiled, adding a dramatic 'what if' to this tumultuous history of crypto. Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, revealed that on the eve of Ethereum's birth, he had invited its founder, Vitalik Buterin (known as 'V God' in the Chinese-speaking world), to join Coinbase, but ultimately, a small U.S. visa unexpectedly altered the entire landscape of the blockchain world.
This historical crossroads not only allows us to know the naive intersections of giants in their early entrepreneurial days but also raises a curious question: If Vitalik had smoothly obtained his visa back then, would the Ethereum we know today, as the 'world computer', still exist?
A World Changed by a Visa
The story dates back to 2013, when the crypto world was still entirely dominated by Bitcoin. According to Armstrong's recollections, he first met Vitalik at a Bitcoin conference held in San Jose, California. At that time, Vitalik was still an author for Bitcoin Magazine, and his profound and outstanding writing left a deep impression on Armstrong.
Shortly after the meeting, Armstrong invited the talented young man to visit Coinbase's first office in San Francisco. In that somewhat humble office, Vitalik presented some of his innovative technical ideas to Armstrong and the team members at the time, including Fred Ehrsam, who later became a co-founder of Paradigm. Everyone present was impressed by Vitalik's vision and intelligence, and after a discussion among the three, they extended an olive branch to the young man, officially inviting him to join the Coinbase team.
For Coinbase, which was just starting, recruiting a talent like Vitalik was undoubtedly a significant boost. For Vitalik, joining Coinbase, which was already a star in the industry, seemed like a natural choice. However, fate's script quietly took a turn at this moment.
This seemingly imminent 'dream recruitment' ultimately fell through due to an extremely pragmatic issue — the visa. Armstrong lamented in the post that, due to a series of reasons, Vitalik could not successfully obtain a work visa for the United States and had to return to his homeland of Canada.
It was this seemingly helpless interlude that became a key catalyst for the later birth of Ethereum. Armstrong summarized this history with a half-joking, half-sentimental remark: 'During his stay in Canada, he created Ethereum. So, in a way, it was the flaws in the U.S. immigration system that facilitated the birth of Ethereum.'
This post quickly sparked over a million views and discussions within the community. Countless people marveled at the randomness of this history, with one user commenting: 'It's surprising that a visa issue shaped the future of cryptocurrency. Sometimes, resistance fosters innovation.'
Armstrong's remarks also sparked reflection and criticism of the U.S. immigration system. Many believe that the rigid system has caused the U.S. to miss out on countless top talents like Vitalik, and that these 'rejected' geniuses ultimately flourished elsewhere, giving birth to innovations capable of changing the world.
Looking back, this rejected visa may be the most expensive and fruitful 'refusal' in the history of cryptocurrency. It pushed Vitalik Buterin away from a path that could have made him a core member of a top exchange towards a more arduous yet grander path as a pioneer.
Lean Ethereum
Fortunately, history does not have 'what ifs.' It is precisely because of that 'missed opportunity' back then that the world was able to witness the birth and growth of Ethereum. Over the past decade, Ethereum has evolved from Vitalik's white paper into a global value network with nearly $130 billion in economic security, carrying a thriving ecosystem of decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and countless Web3 applications.
Standing at the starting line of its tenth anniversary, Ethereum has not slowed down. Recently, the Ethereum Foundation released a manifesto titled 'Lean Ethereum', outlining a grand development blueprint for the next decade for the world's most active public chain.
The core of this blueprint is the dual-engine strategy of 'Fortress Mode' and 'Beast Mode':
Fortress Mode — Building a Quantum-Safe Defense Line: This is Ethereum's main line of defense. In the face of potential cracking threats posed by future quantum computing, Ethereum plans to introduce 'post-quantum cryptography' at the protocol level, such as adopting hash-based signatures and commitment mechanisms to establish an impenetrable quantum-safe defense line for the entire network in advance.
Beast Mode — Unlocking Millions of TPS: This is Ethereum's main line of expansion. The plan proposes ambitious performance goals, increasing the processing capacity of Layer 1 (mainnet) to 10,000 TPS (transactions per second), and through the collaboration of Layer 2 (second-layer scaling solutions), ultimately pushing the processing capacity of the entire Ethereum ecosystem to an astonishing level of 1 million transactions per second. Key technologies to achieve this goal will include real-time zkVM (zero-knowledge virtual machine) and Data Availability Sampling.
To support these two major strategies, the Ethereum protocol itself will undergo a comprehensive 'lean' restructuring at the consensus, data, and execution levels, including the introduction of Beacon Chain 2.0 to shorten transaction final confirmation times, the adoption of Blobs 2.0 format to reduce data costs and enhance quantum resistance, and the development of a more SNARK-friendly EVM 2.0 to unlock more efficient computations.
From Coincidence to Necessity
Looking back, the birth of Ethereum was filled with coincidences. A young genius, a discerning invitation, a rejected visa, together composed a legendary tale worthy of being recorded in the history of technology. It is hard to imagine what today's blockchain world would look like without that fateful twist.
Looking ahead, the path for Ethereum is filled with certainty. This 'Lean Ethereum' ten-year blueprint clearly showcases the foresight and determination of its builders. It aims not only to resolve current scalability bottlenecks but also to prepare for distant quantum threats.
As stated in the manifesto: 'This is about legacy. We are builders, we are messengers, we are Ethereum.' From a chance 'almost not born' moment to the grand vision of laying the digital economic infrastructure for the next generation, the story of Ethereum perfectly embodies the spirit of blockchain.