Ethereum at 10 and what’s next

Ten years ago, Ethereum was little more than an idea on Reddit. Today, it stands as one of the most significant technological innovations in modern finance.

Co-founded by Vitalik Buterin in 2013, Ethereum began with a vision to move beyond Bitcoin’s perceived limitations.

Ethereum’s early days

That vision sparked interest from fellow technologists, including Gavin Wood, who would go on to write the Ethereum Yellow Paper, a key technical document that helped legitimize the project.

In mid-2014, long before Ethereum became a household name in crypto, the Ethereum Foundation launched a public presale. ETH was sold at an initial fixed exchange rate of 2,000 ETH per BTC, gradually decreasing over 42 days to 1,337 ETH per BTC.

The sale raised over 31,000 BTC, valued at roughly $18.3 million at the time, and distributed 60 million ETH.

Those funds laid the foundation for Ethereum’s network development and community growth.

Since then, Ethereum has grown into the second-largest blockchain by market capitalization. It has powered countless innovations, from DeFi and NFTs to Layer-2 scaling and zero-knowledge proofs.

The network has also undergone major milestones, including the DAO crisis, the hard fork that followed, and The Merge, which transitioned Ethereum from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake.

Joseph Lubin, Consensys CEO and Ethereum co-founder, highlighted the protocol’s resilience during these 10 years, saying:

“Ethereum has demonstrated non-stop uptime, proving itself as the definition of antifragile. It has continually evolved to serve as a reliable trust layer for our fast-growing digital world.”

Lubin also noted that Ethereum’s appeal now extends far beyond the crypto-native world. Financial giants like BlackRock, JPMorgan, and Visa have begun building on the network, attracted by its programmability and security.

He noted:

“Ethereum offers a borderless, transparent, and decentralized…