Vitalik Dmitrievich Buterin is a Russian-Canadian writer and programmer known as one of the co-founders of Ethereum. Buterin got involved in cryptocurrency in his teenage days and started writing for Bitcoin Weekly magazine. He also co-founded Bitcoin Magazine in 2011 and started writing various information about crypto. He is now the youngest crypto billionaire in the world. He is the newest entrant to the three-comma club. So, let us dive into this article to read the journey and success story of this young and brilliant man.
Note - Buterin is also well-known for his philanthropic work, and he was in the news after donating a considerable amount to India’s Covid Relief Fund
Vitalik Buterin – Key Highlights
- Full Name – Vitalik Dmitriyevich Buterin
- Date of Birth – 31 January 1994 (age 27 years)
- Place of Birth – Kolomna, Russia
- Alma Mater – University of Waterloo
- Nationality – Canadian
- Known for – Bitcoin Magazine, Ethereum
- Net worth - $1 billion
- Website – www.vitalik.ca
Vitalik Buterin – Early Life
Vitalik was born in Kolomna, Russia, to Natalia Ameline and Dmitry Buterin. His father was a computer scientist, and his mother was a house maker. His parents emigrated to Canada when he was just six years old in search of better career-related opportunities. He learned about Bitcoin at the age of 17 years while attending high school at Abelard School, Toronto.
Vitalik Buterin – Education
Buterin continued his studies in Canada, where he got put into the class of gifted students. He got drawn towards mathematics, economics, and programming as a kid.
He studied at the University of Waterloo, a research assistant for cryptographer Ian Goldberg and took advanced courses. However, he dropped out of it in 2014 after getting a grant from the Thiel Fellowship of $100,000. It was a scholarship by Peter Thiel (venture capitalist) and went to work full-time on Ethereum.
Vitalik Buterin – Career Timeline
- Bitcoin Magazine – Vitalik started writing for Bitcoin Weekly in 2011. He received this offer from its owner, who offered him $3.5 to anyone who would write an article on Bitcoin for him. However, the website got shut down due to the lack of revenue. So, in 2011, Buterin and Mihai Alisie started Bitcoin Magazine, a new print publication. It was the first-ever magazine that got dedicated to crypto.
- Job at Ripple & Ledger – Buterin also got accepted at Ripple by Jed McCaleb.But unfortunately, it didn’t work out as Jed failed to support a US visa for him. Buterin also held a position on a peer-reviewed scholarly journal, ledger. It published descriptive original research articles on blockchain technology and cryptocurrency.
- Ethereum – Vitalik is the inventor and co-founder of Ethereum. It is a software development platform and a decentralized mining network rolled into one. He first described Ether in a white paper, and its interest grew in the new protocol in 2013. He announced Ethereum in Miami at the North American Bitcoin Conference on 26 January 2014. He highlighted the potential uses for Ethereum, ranging from decentralized exchanges to crop insurance to DAOs.
- Open-Source Software – Vitalik contributed as a developer to DarkWallet by Cody Wilson and other open-source software projects. He was also a part of Egora (cryptocurrency marketplace) and Bitcoin Python libraries.
- Ethereum Russia – Vitalik met Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on 2 June 2017. He recognized the political and economic relevance of the Ethereum enterprise.
- Work with Glen Weyl – He contacted Glen Weyl (economist), and they wrote a declaration Liberation Through Radical Decentralization. It highlighted the common ground between Glen’s work on market-based solutions and Vitalik’s on cryptocurrencies to social problems. In addition, they published a paper in 2019, A Flexible for Funding Public Goods, after collaborating with Zoe Hitzig. The report used a version of quadratic voting and focused on the optimal provision of public goods.
Vitalik Buterin – Awards and Achievements
Some of the awards and achievements of Vitalik are as follows:
- Thiel Fellowship – 2014
- Bronze Medal – International Olympiad in Informatics
- Fortune 40 under 40 list – 2016
- World Technology Award – 2014 (In the IT software company)
- Forbes 30 under 30 list – 2018
- Fortune the ledger 40 under 40 list – 2018
- Time 100 - 2021
- University of Basel Honorary Doctorate - 2018
Vitalik Buterin Social Work - Philanthropy
Some of the philanthropic work done by Vitalik is as follows:
- Donation of $763,970 of Ether – Machine Intelligence Research Institute, 2017
- Donation of $2.4 million of Ether – SENS Research Foundation, 2018 (for research on human life extension and rejuvenation biotechnologies)
- Donation of $50,000 – SENS Research Foundation, 2020 (for combating aging and aging-related diseases)
- Donation of USD 1.14 billion worth of SHIBA coins – India’s Crypto Covid relief fund, 2021
- Donation of $336 million worth of Dogelon Mars – Methuselah Foundation, 2021 (focused on extending human lifespan)
