In 2011, a curious 17-year-old named Vitalik Buterin discovered Bitcoin after his father told him about it. He was fascinated by the idea of decentralized currency and began researching and learning. But there was one problem—he didn't have the money to buy any Bitcoin!
Instead of giving up, Vitalik decided to enter this world differently: he started writing articles about Bitcoin to earn digital currencies. He wrote for Bitcoin Weekly and then co-founded Bitcoin Magazine, earning 5 Bitcoin per article—which at the time was worth about 3 dollars!
No one expected that this young man would change the future of blockchain.
In 2013, after turning 19, Vitalik realized that despite its greatness, Bitcoin was limited in terms of programming capabilities. He began dreaming of a platform that would allow for the creation of smart contracts and decentralized applications, paving the way for an entirely new internet.
And thus the Ethereum project was born.
Ethereum was officially launched in 2015, offering what Bitcoin couldn't: flexibility. Developers could build entire systems on a decentralized blockchain. From decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to decentralized organizations (DAOs) and the metaverse—Ethereum became the backbone of innovation in the Web3 world.
Today, Ethereum is the second-largest digital currency in the world, and Vitalik Buterin has become a legend in the crypto world—all because a broke teenager decided to write instead of giving up.
The lesson? In the world of digital currencies, curiosity and action are far more important than capital.