Vitalik Buterin, co-founder and spiritual leader of Ethereum, turned 30 on January 31st. He calls this day “the end of childhood.”
Buterin has accomplished a lot. Following in Satoshi Nakamoto’s footsteps was a challenge, but Buterin rose to the challenge without any ego. In honor of his many accomplishments, CoinDesk has compiled 30 reasons to love Buterin. Of course, the list is current.
1. Tell it like it is
In 2017, at the height of the initial coin offering (ICO) boom, when the market capitalization of crypto assets (virtual currencies) exceeded $50 billion (approximately 73 trillion yen, equivalent to 146 yen to the dollar), Buterin said, “We are Do I deserve it?” he tweeted. It’s a valid question, considering many (but not all) large ICOs have yielded nothing.
2. Right heart
Buterin’s mission when he founded Ethereum was to create a “world computer” capable of running any imaginable application.
But throughout his career, he has always spotlighted projects that solve real-world problems.
3. Repay a favor
Buterin learned about Bitcoin from his father when he was 17 years old. Currently, his parents, Dmitry Buterin and Natalia Ameline, both work in the crypto industry. Mr. Amerin is involved in the development of Ethereum’s Layer 2 “Metis”.
4. It was the Bitcoiner inside the Bitcoiner
When Buterin discovered Bitcoin in 2011, he began writing about the first cryptocurrency for the now-defunct Bitcoin Weekly, hoping to learn everything he could about the emerging technology.
Later that year, he co-founded Bitcoin Magazine and became one of the magazine’s most prolific writers, covering and developing ideas that are still being debated, such as the introduction of smart contracts and layer 2 scaling.
5. Humility
He has been named to the Forbes list of 30 under 30 people who are changing the world and the 40 under 40 list of young business leaders, has been awarded an honorary doctorate, and has been featured in many magazines. It is featured in.
But no one claims Mr. Buterin is doing it for the money or fame.
6. Contribute to economics
Along with Glen Weyl and Zoe Hitzig, Buterin helped develop a system called quadratic voting, which distributes funds equitably without the need for a central decision-maker. did.
This system is now at work throughout the crypto world, particularly in the decentralized app Gitcoin, which funds public good causes.
7. Be generous not only with your time but also with your money.
Buterin has made a number of philanthropic donations in recent years to support research into AI safety and longevity, as well as other more pragmatic issues.
8. Do good by taking advantage of those who take advantage of you.
When the “dog token” first became popular in 2021, the Shiba Inu Coin (SHIB) development team sent about 5% of SHIB’s circulation to Mr. Buterin. It was a blatant attempt to sell the project.
Buterin donated these coins, which were worth more than $1 billion at the time, to India’s Crypto Covid Relief Fund.
9. Speak up for a cause you believe in
Buterin, who was born in Russia, has voiced his opposition to the invasion of Ukraine, posting a gem of a tweet on the first day of the invasion: “Ethereum is neutral, but I am not.”
10. Love simple things
Mr. Buterin’s current profile on X (formerly Twitter), “mi pinxe lo crino tcati,” is said to mean “I drink green tea” in the artificially developed rule-based language Lojban. is. He’s also known for mixing green tea with red wine (no one can be perfect).
11. Perfect fashion sense
Whether it’s a unicorn T-shirt, a bear costume, or sunglasses straight out of The Matrix, Buterin definitely knows how to pull off an outfit.
12. You can afford to play the fool.
Buterin performed the “Badger Dance” at the opening ceremony of Edcon 2018 in Toronto, Canada.
13. Unique voice
Somewhere between The Simpsons’ Professor and Sesame Street’s Kermit the Frog, Buterin’s unique voice is one that will go down in history.
14. Don’t be afraid to evolve your thinking and question your past self later.
At the start of 2022, Buterin posted a tweet reconsidering dozens of things he had said and written. This isn’t the first or last time he’s done something like this.
15. Don’t be afraid to criticize your heroes.
Many crypto leaders, including Buterin, have written about James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg’s The Sovereign Individual. ” as one of his favorite books.
In 2020, Buterin takes a closer look at the book’s core concepts and how they apply to today’s digital world, nearly 30 years after its publication, debating their rights and wrongs.
16. Accessibility Champion
Not only is Ethereum designed to be open and available to anyone with an internet connection, Buterin is also constantly thinking of ways to lower fees, increase access, and subsidize usage. It also includes controversial measures that other blockchain advocates may dismiss.
17. I know how to throw a party.
Just ask anyone who attended Zuzalu, a one-week retreat and study group held in Montenegro for people interested in crypto assets and longevity research.
18. A person whose words and deeds are consistent
Buterin frequently uses decentralized applications, from social media apps like Farcaster to donation protocols like Gitcoin. He might just be the ideal Ethereum user.
19. Views rival chains as zero-plus rather than zero-sum
When Solana was vandalized after the collapse of FTX, which was closely tied to the Solana blockchain ecosystem, and the fall of Sam Bankman-Fried, Buterin tweeted:
“Solana has a serious and smart developer community, and smart people have told me that this chain has a bright future now that the awfully opportunistic money grabbers have been washed away. I don’t know, but I hope the community is given a fair chance to thrive.”
I don’t mean to overstate it, but this one tweet went a long way in reaffirming my faith in rival project Solana. He does not kick others when they are down, but offers his hand.
20. A techno-optimist with a realistic mindset
Take a look at our recent blog about how AI and crypto assets can interact. Buterin is putting a lot of emphasis on the areas he thinks will work best, such as having AI agents work on-chain and “the fundamental mechanics will continue to be designed much the same way as before.”
21. Knows how to create neologisms
The recent “Defensive/Decentralized/Differential Acceleration,” or d/acc (a play on ultra-aggressive, pro-technology, pro-capitalist e/acc), proposes that humanity take a more considerate approach to technological progress. ) to the blockchain trilemma, Buterin has coined many terms that have become commonly used.
22. A bit of an anarchist (in a good way)
In addition to founding Ethereum, Buterin has also contributed to more radical projects, including Cody Wilson’s supposedly censorship-resistant DarkWallet.
23. Remember to be respectful
The word Ethereum is often said to derive from Ethernet, the physical backbone of the Internet (thought to be the fifth element in the Middle Ages, which Buterin came across while reading Wikipedia). There is also a theory that it originates from “ether”).
24. Offer ideas if you don’t have time to develop them.
Let’s take Uniswap, the largest DEX (decentralized exchange), as an example.
25. Master Developer
This seems obvious, but if you need an example, think of “merge,” which is often described as “changing an airplane engine mid-flight.”
26. Embodies the best aspects of Ethereum’s “social layer”
After the infamous DAO incident, Buterin initially advocated for a soft fork of Ethereum to prevent the chain’s history from being rewritten.
Eventually, due to technical challenges, the community opted for a “hard fork” and two chains were born: Ethereum and Ethereum Classic.
This moment is significant in the history of crypto assets. Because it showed that code is not always absolute and that people have a say in how a project should develop.
27. It’s not about the money.
In a recent blog, Buterin lamented how money-focused the crypto industry has become. He wants to “return Ethereum to cypherpunk.”
28. Sense of humor
I’m not sure if Buterin coined the terms Merge, Verge, Surge, Purge, Splurge to describe the upcoming phase of Ethereum’s development, but I’m sure he embraces it.
29. Try to take revenge (if justified)
It is well known that Ethereum was created after Buterin’s warlock character in the game World of Warcraft was, in his words, “nerfed.” There is.
After game developer Blizzard downgraded his favorite Siphon Life spell, Buterin started thinking about ways to give people more control over their digital lives. He also follows Craig Wright.
30. Be the leader crypto assets have always needed.
After Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, left, someone had to continue to uphold the ideals of decentralization, censorship resistance, and trusted neutrality.
While Mr. Buterin remains in the spotlight, he faces the daunting task of developing technology that antagonizes many of today’s most powerful organizations.
As he writes in his recent manifesto, he does it because he thinks it’s the right thing to do, and because he thinks the goal of open source and open access technology will ultimately benefit the world.
“I believe that these (technologies) are deeply good, and that extending humanity’s reach even further to the planets and stars is deeply good. body”
Cryptocurrency is good in part because Buterin is good.
｜Translation and editing: Akiko Yamaguchi, Takayuki Masuda
｜Image: Viterik Buterin (TechCrunch/Wikimeda Commons, processed by CoinDesk)
｜Original text: 30 Reasons to Love Vitalik Buterin, on His 30th Birthday
