A Brief History of Ethereum
Ethereum has become one of the most popular cryptocurrencies since its launch in 2015, but its history dates back to as early as 2013. The concept of Ethereum was introduced by a 19-year-old programmer named Vitalik Buterin. In his white paper, Buterin proposed a decentralized platform for building decentralized applications (dapps) through the use of smart contracts. Buterin’s vision was to create a blockchain that could do more than just represent digital currency transactions.
Buterin, who is from Russia but grew up in Canada, introduced Ethereum to the world in a white paper that he published in 2013. His paper outlined the technical specifications of the platform and how it would function. The primary difference between Ethereum and Bitcoin, the first decentralized cryptocurrency, is that Ethereum allows for programmable smart contracts. These contracts can be used to create dapps, which are decentralized applications that run on the Ethereum blockchain.
In 2014, Buterin and his team conducted an initial coin offering (ICO) to fund the development of Ethereum. The ICO raised $18 million and marked the beginning of Ethereum’s journey. Ethereum’s ICO was different from most other ICOs in the sense that the cryptocurrency (ETH) had a utility within the network. Investors were not just buying a token that would increase in value, but they were buying a token that would allow them to use the Ethereum network.
Development on the Ethereum platform continued at a breakneck pace, and the platform went live on July 30, 2015. Ethereum’s launch marked the birth of a new era in blockchain technology with its ability to support smart contracts. The Ethereum blockchain was different from Bitcoin’s in the sense that it was designed to be more flexible and support more types of transactions than just currency transactions.
The evolution of Ethereum continued, with the first hard fork occurring in 2016. A hard fork refers to a permanent divergence in the blockchain. It typically occurs when two groups of developers have different ideas about how to proceed with the blockchain’s development. The Ethereum hard fork that took place in 2016 was caused by a hack on the DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization), which was built on top of the Ethereum blockchain. The DAO was a venture capital fund, and it was hacked for over $50 million worth of ETH. The hard fork was intended to return the stolen funds to their original owners.
The hard fork led to the creation of two separate chains: Ethereum and Ethereum Classic. While Ethereum continued to develop as planned, Ethereum Classic remained on the old chain, without making any significant changes. Ethereum Classic exists today as a separate cryptocurrency, but it has not gained as much mainstream acceptance as Ethereum.
The Ethereum platform has continued to evolve since its launch. The second hard fork occurred in 2017 when the network needed to undergo a massive update. The update was needed to help the network scale, as it was starting to become too slow and too expensive to use. The update was called Metropolis, and it was divided into two parts: Byzantium and Constantinople. The Byzantium update took place in October 2017, and it introduced new features to the Ethereum network, such as zk-SNARKs (a type of cryptography), to improve privacy and transaction speed. The Constantinople update was scheduled to take place in early 2019, but it was delayed due to a vulnerability in the code.
Ethereum has become the go-to platform for developers looking to build dapps. Some of the most successful dapps built on the Ethereum platform include CryptoKitties, which is a game that allows users to trade and collect virtual cats, and Augur, a decentralized prediction market. Ethereum’s flexible and programmable smart contracts have opened up new possibilities for developers, and the future of Ethereum looks bright.
In conclusion, Ethereum has come a long way since its inception in 2013. It has become one of the most popular cryptocurrencies, and its smart contracts have opened up new possibilities for blockchain technology. The road ahead for Ethereum is still long, and there will be many challenges to overcome, but its ability to adapt and change will ensure its place in the future of blockchain technology.