The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization after Bitcoin:🤩🤩🤩🤩💸💸💸💸
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🧠 What is Ethereum?🤔🤔🤔
Ethereum is a blockchain platform that supports smart contracts—self-executing contracts with coded terms. It was proposed to expand the use of blockchain beyond simple transactions, enabling decentralized applications (dApps).
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📅 Ethereum Timeline (Key Milestones)👌👌👌
2013 – Conceptualization
Founder: Vitalik Buterin, a programmer and Bitcoin Magazine co-founder.
Idea Published: Ethereum white paper released in late 2013, proposing a platform with a built-in Turing-complete scripting language.
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2014 – Development and Crowdsale👌👌👌
Ethereum Foundation was established in Switzerland.
Crowdsale (ICO): July–August 2014, raised over $18 million USD—one of the biggest at that time.
Price during ICO: ~0.30 USD per ETH.
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2015 – Launch of Ethereum😊😊😊😊
Ethereum Mainnet (Frontier): Launched on July 30, 2015.
Initial ETH Supply: 72 million ETH distributed.
Gas Fees Introduced: ETH used to power smart contract executions.
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2016 – The DAO and Ethereum Split😎😎😎
The DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization): Raised $150M in ETH.
June 2016 Hack: $60M worth of ETH stolen due to a vulnerability.
Ethereum Hard Fork (July 2016):
Ethereum (ETH): Returned stolen funds.
Ethereum Classic (ETC): Continued on the original chain.
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2017 – Rise of ICOs🤩🤩🤩🤩
Ethereum Became the Platform for ICOs: Dozens of startups launched tokens using Ethereum's ERC-20 standard.
ETH Price Boom: Rose from $8 (Jan) to $800 (Dec).
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2018 – Scaling and Congestion Issues🫠🫠🫠
Network congestion during crypto booms.
CryptoKitties dApp slowed down Ethereum, highlighting scalability limits.
Focus shifted to Ethereum 2.0 research and Layer 2 solutions.
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2020 – DeFi Explosion🤑🤑🤑
Decentralized Finance (DeFi): Applications like Uniswap, Compound, and Aave surged on Ethereum.
ETH Price Recovery: $130 (Jan) → ~$700 (Dec).
Ethereum 2.0 (Phase 0): Beacon Chain launched on Dec 1, 2020, introducing Proof of Stake (PoS).
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2021 – NFTs and London Hard Fork😁😁😁😁
NFT Boom: Platforms like OpenSea, Rarible use Ethereum for NFT transactions.
London Hard Fork (August 2021):
Introduced EIP-1559, which burns a portion of gas fees—reducing ETH inflation.
ETH ATH (All-Time High): ~$4,878 in November 2021.
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2022 – Market Downturn & Merge Prep🚀🚀🚀🚀
ETH price declined due to global crypto bear market.
Ethereum focused on testing and preparing for the Merge (PoW → PoS).
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2023 – The Merge🚀🚀🚀🚀
Ethereum Merge Completed: On September 15, 2022 (though often cited in 2023 narratives).
Transitioned Ethereum from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS).
Energy usage dropped by ~99.95%.
Set the stage for future scalability upgrades like sharding.
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2024 – Ethereum Post-Merge and Dencun Upgrade
Dencun Upgrade (March 2024): Introduced Proto-Danksharding (EIP-4844) for Layer 2 scalability.
Focus on improving data availability and transaction speed.
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⚙️ Ethereum Today (2025 Status)
Continues to dominate DeFi, NFTs, and Layer 2 ecosystem.
Active development on sharding, account abstraction, and zero-knowledge (zk) tech.
ETH remains a deflationary asset due to EIP-1559 burning mechanism.
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🧾 Summary Chart
Year Event Milestone
2013 White Paper Vitalik Buterin proposes Ethereum
2014 ICO Raised $18M
2015 Launch Ethereum Mainnet goes live
2016 The DAO Hack ETH/ETC Split
2017 ICO Boom ERC-20 adoption surges
2020 Beacon Chain ETH 2.0 Phase 0 begins
2021 NFT & DeFi London Hard Fork
2022 Merge Testing Final PoW year
2023 The Merge PoS transition complete
2024 Dencun Layer 2 scaling begins
Would you like an image timeline or a summarized infographic of Ethereum's history?😉😉😉