$ETH was officially launched in 2015 and offered what Bitcoin could not: flexibility. Developers could build entire systems on a decentralized blockchain. From decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to decentralized organizations (DAO) and the metaverse—Ethereum has become the backbone of innovation in the world of Web3.

Today, Ethereum is the second largest cryptocurrency in the world, and Vitalik Buterin has become a legend in the cryptocurrency world—all because an unemployed teenager decided to write instead of giving up.

The lesson? In the world of cryptocurrencies, curiosity and work are far more important than capital.