Vitalik Buterin was born in Russia in 1994. When he was 5 years old, his parents divorced, and he immigrated to Toronto, Canada with his father. Confused and bewildered, he spent more time with the gift he received just a year before leaving Russia—his first personal computer. At the age of 12, Buterin started writing simple games for himself using the programming language C++. He also looked like a typical prodigy: thin as a reed, with a large head, speaking very quickly, often with a distracted gaze. Some said he was introverted, while many preferred to call him 'an alien out of touch with the world.' At the age of 17, Buterin began to engage with Bitcoin, which was just 2 years old at the time. This was largely thanks to his father Dmitry Buterin, a co-founder of the blockchain incubator Blockgeeks Labs. In 2012, after graduating high school, Buterin smoothly entered the University of Waterloo in Canada, known for its computer science program, but he dropped out after just 8 months. At that time, Buterin was obsessed with Bitcoin; five Bitcoins were worth only $3.50, yet he was still enjoying himself. After a part-time job ended due to a website closure, Buterin decided to start his own media outlet called Bitcoin Magazine, which established his status as an opinion leader. The magazine was later acquired by BTC Media. Buterin visited Bitcoin developer communities in the United States, Spain, Italy, Israel, and joined the transformation efforts of Bitcoin (Bitcoin 2.0), clarifying its applications beyond cryptocurrency due to his involvement. He proposed his envisioned program to the Bitcoin community and wanted to integrate it into the existing Bitcoin blockchain system, but was rejected. He simply started anew, gathering nearly 20 partners and investing the $100,000 Thiel Fellowship he received that year, beginning the work on Ethereum. Buterin insisted that Ethereum should belong to everyone and not be owned by a single company, thus the development process did not accept venture capital investments. In July 2014, the 'Ethereum Project' launched a crowdfunding campaign for Ether, where 1 Bitcoin could be exchanged for 2000 Ethers. This caused a significant stir, with over 7 million Ethers sold within 12 hours, raising 31,000 Bitcoins (approximately $18.4 million) over a 42-day crowdfunding period. Buterin acknowledged that the safety of funds was a major challenge throughout Ethereum's development. The entire team continuously tested, and at one point, due to the depreciation of Bitcoin, they faced a funding gap, delaying Ethereum's development until June 2015, when the first version of Ethereum was successfully launched and named Frontier. All promised Ethers to early investors were smoothly delivered, and developers began to weave their dreams on Ethereum. On June 17, 2017, the total market capitalization of Ether reached a peak of $1.57 billion; the exchange rate soared from less than $1 to nearly $20. However, on the same day, the Ethereum smart contract platform's network was hacked, with hackers exploiting vulnerabilities in the smart contract to issue commands that led to DAO repeatedly disbursing funds, stealing a total of 3.7 million Ethers (then worth about $53 million). Although the stolen Ethers had not yet been withdrawn or cashed out, the value of Ether nearly halved within 2 days, evaporating $500 million in total market value. Buterin, pushed to the forefront of criticism, made a bold decision—to directly challenge the previously unmodifiable sacred rule of blockchain by updating the Ethereum blockchain. This action sparked dissatisfaction among many. Whether it was Bitcoin or Ether, from the beginning, changes and restorations were not allowed, and many believed this move violated the original intention of blockchain creation. Due to Ethereum's decentralization, Buterin's decision had to be recognized by most users. As a result, Ethereum split into two factions: one was Classic Ethereum (Ethereum Classic), which insisted on the unchangeable principle of the blockchain, remaining to maintain the original Ethereum, and was named Ethereum Classic. The other faction remained Ethereum, led by Buterin, who updated many security vulnerabilities. This split was also referred to as a hard fork. In the face of overwhelming doubt and concern, Buterin continued to report Ethereum's current status and future in his usual calm, emotionless tone. Whether the outside world agreed or not, he would implement the plans in his heart immediately with lines of programming language. Thus, Ethereum broke the boundaries of past blockchain platforms, allowing developers to more easily create various blockchain applications. Applications and startups extending from Ethereum indeed sprang up like mushrooms after rain, with applications ranging from music royalty payment systems to energy trading. In July 2014, the issuance price of ETH (Ethereum) was $1.86, rising to $23 in August 2015, $98 in March 2016, $350 in March 2017, $9,100 in January 2018, $2,350 in June 2019, $550 in March 2020, $28,000 in May 2021, $10,080 in October 2022, $13,380 in 2023, $19,005 in 2024, and $23,250 in 2025.$BTC $ETH #加密市场回调 #币安Alpha上新