The first literary masterpiece by Vitalik Buterin, the creator of Ethereum? An “encyclopedia of bunnies” written at the age of seven – in an Excel spreadsheet. In it, the child of Russian computer scientists philosophizes about money, credit cards and computer systems – from little rabbits. Twelve years later he invents Ethereum. And rocks the tech world forever.
At the age of seven he calculates three-digit numbers at the speed of a pocket calculator, at the age of ten he programs his own video games, as a teenager he reads anarchist literature and learns Mandarin. Born outside of Moscow, raised in Canada,
the internet soon became the home of the 28-year-old. There he finds people who can compete with him in discussions. Many of his posts are so sprawling and peppered with technical terms that scoffers program an algorithm to mimic him. They call the resulting texts “Etheric Verses”.
Buterin later said of blockchain technology: “This is the first technology that
loves me back.” At the age of 18 he founded the “Bitcoin Magazine”, soon to become
spokesman in space. At his first bitcoin meetup in San Jose, he meets “the people I’ve been looking for my whole life”. With five of them he starts a revolutionary project in Switzerland: Ethereum, a reference to the ether (English: Ether), “the invisible medium that pervades the universe and allows light to travel”.
A billionaire with a penchant for fantasy creatures
Today Vitalik Buterin is followed by millions of people on the internet. The Times named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Even football star Tom Brady admits to being a fan on Twitter. The answer from the programming god: “I had to google who that is. I thought the guy from Mission Impossible.”
Even as an adult, he carries his love for fantasy creatures around with him. Literally: His T-shirts and watches are decorated with unicorns, kittens and rainbows. Dressed up at the last ETH Denver, a conference for Ethereum fans
the multi-millionaire as a Yeti, also to avoid the prying eyes of visitors. One of his shirts once said, “You read my shirt. That’s enough social interaction for today.”
Even as a child, he preferred to withdraw. “His mind was always racing. It was difficult for him to communicate with others,” his father said. “He hardly spoke a word until he was ten years old.” Even today, Vitalik Buterin struggles with his public role as the flagship of Ethereum, the often drawn image of the blockchain messiah.
“The community cannot survive if it depends completely on me,” he says. He wants to promote other voices, withdraw. As the conscience of the industry, he repeatedly warns of the consequences of unbridled speculation and greed for profit.
“If we don’t raise our voices, there’s a risk that only things that are profitable will be built,” Buterin said recently. “And those aren’t necessarily the things that are best for the world.”
Disclaimer: This article first appeared in the August issue of BTC-ECHO Magazine. You can order it here.
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