There is a story I’ve always found more legendary than Bitcoin.

In 2014, a young Russian guy came to Hangzhou to attend an exhibition and generously distributed 5,000 virtual coins to people. At that time, almost everyone doubted him and thought he was a scammer. Only a very few believed in his vision. Looking back now, those 5,000 virtual coins given away for free have risen to $150 million. That young man is Vitalik Buterin, and those virtual coins are Ethereum.

Interestingly, V神’s story begins with a game. Between the ages of 13 and 16, he was obsessed with World of Warcraft, especially loving the Warlock class. But after an upgrade, Blizzard removed his favorite skill. This experience made him realize deeply that in centralized systems, players are always at a disadvantage. At that moment, he started thinking about whether there was a way to break this pattern.

At 17, V神 discovered Bitcoin. The decentralized nature of blockchain deeply attracted him. But as he delved deeper, he found Bitcoin had limitations, despite the huge market demand. So he decided to create Ethereum.

At the end of 2013, V神 published a paper titled “Ethereum: A Next Generation Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform.” This paper analyzed Bitcoin’s design and shortcomings in detail and outlined Ethereum’s potential. The paper caused a sensation upon release, receiving widespread praise from the Bitcoin community, and many people proactively sought to collaborate with V神.

In July 2014, Ethereum launched a crowdfunding campaign. The fundraising was very successful, and the team raised 31,000 BTC. But at that time, many still didn’t believe in V神 and his vision.

The real turning point came with the DAO incident in 2016. A project built on Ethereum was hacked, and 3.6 million ETH was stolen. V神 and the Ethereum Foundation decided to perform a hard fork to reverse the stolen funds. However, some insisted that the code should not be changed, and they continued mining on the original chain. This led to the birth of Ethereum Classic (ETC). Although the fork caused chaos, ETC also attracted many investors’ attention.

The 2017 bull market truly made Ethereum explode. Domestic exchanges started listing ETH trading pairs, which was unprecedented at the time. ETH’s rise sparked a mining frenzy, with GPU prices soaring. Meanwhile, ICOs became a new fundraising method, with almost all projects issuing tokens on Ethereum to raise funds. This frenzy lasted until September 4, 2017, when regulatory policies were introduced, gradually bringing it to an end.

In March 2020, the crypto market plummeted, and ETH dropped from $1,500 to $87. Many lost confidence. But just then, DeFi exploded. The total value locked in decentralized finance protocols exceeded $10 billion, growing over 2000%. Most DeFi projects are built on the Ethereum network, further driving Ethereum’s development.

In the 2021 bull run, ETH’s price soared to $4,850, a 16k-fold increase. Virtual land, NFT projects worth millions of dollars, became legendary stories of the era.

In recent years, V神 and the Ethereum team completed the transition from PoW to PoS, and L2 networks have been successfully launched. This opened new opportunities. Many people participated in testing new projects’ testnets, earning token rewards after the projects went live, with some even making hundreds of millions of dollars.

Now, competition among L2 networks is intensifying. Projects like ARB, OP, ZKS, STRK are all vying for market share. As the mainnet load increases, transaction speeds slow down, and fees rise, L2 has become an inevitable trend. The future of the crypto space will be a competition among L2 networks, and the projects that win will gain widespread recognition.

Honestly, the story of V神 and Ethereum is full of challenges and twists. From a doubted young man to Ethereum becoming one of the miracles in the blockchain world, this process alone is worth studying. Whether you are a newcomer or a veteran, you should keep a close eye on Ethereum’s developments. Currently, ETH is around $2,050, with an all-time high of $4,950. This project still holds great opportunities.