Vitalik Buterin is a programmer as well as a writer. Buterin is best known as one of Ethereum’s co-founders. He has been in the cryptocurrency space since its inception. In 2011, he co-founded Bitcoin Magazine. He also co-founded Ethereum with Gavin Wood, Charles, Hoskinson, Anthony Di Iorio, and Joseph Lubin a few years later.
Vitalik Buterin’s net worth could reach about $2 billion by the end of 2022.
What is Vitalik Buterin’s net worth?
Net Worth: ~$1.5 Billion
Age: 27
Born: January 31, 1994
Origin: Russia
Source of Wealth: Programmer, Ethereum
Early Life And Education
Vitalik was born in Kolomna, Moscow Oblast, Russia, on January 31, 1994. Buterin lived in Russia until the age of six, when his parents decided to immigrate to Canada to seek better opportunities.
When he was in third grade at a Canadian primary school, he was placed in a program for the gifted. During his stay in the program, Vitalik quickly realized that his special abilities and talents set him apart from his classmates and even his teachers. He had a thing for mathematics and programming, had a strong early interest in economics, and could easily add three-digit numbers twice as fast as the typical person his age.
Vitalik discovered Bitcoin in 2011 while seeking a new direction in life. He was first skeptical, and he couldn’t see how it could be valuable without any tangible basis. However, as time passed, he learned more and became fascinated.
He wanted to formally join this new and experimental economy by getting some tokens, but he lacked the computing power to create them and the money to buy Bitcoin. So he started looking for work in Bitcoin on various sites and ultimately started writing articles for a blog, earning roughly five Bitcoin per article. Simultaneously, he investigated the economic, technological, and political elements of cryptocurrencies.
Throughout the years, Buterin did some traveling to analyze different crypto protocols. After studying the protocols used by those projects, Vitalik realized that by replacing all of their functionality with a Turing-complete programming language, he could vastly expand what the protocols were accomplishing.
After he was turned down by existing projects, Vitalik decided to create his own – hence the birth of Ethereum.
Birth of Ethereum
In late 2013, Vitalik Buterin presented his idea in a white paper, which he distributed to a couple of his friends, who spread it even further. As a result, around 30 people contacted Vitalik to discuss the proposal. Initially, Ethereum’s concept was centered on digital currency.
The concept evolved over time, and by the end of January 2014, the team realized that building decentralized file storage is relatively simple. As such, notions like name registry can be easily implemented with just a few lines of code. The core team – Vitalik Buterin, Mihai Alise, Anthony Di Iorio, Charles Hoskinson, Joe Lubin, and Gavin Wood – publicly introduced the project in January 2014.
A few months later, the team decided to set up an initial coin offering (ICO) of ETH, the Ethereum network’s native token, to fund the development. Vitalik received a $100,000 Thiel Fellowship grant around the same time. The team raised around 31,000 BTC via the sale of ETH, which was worth roughly $18 million at the time.
The team of Ethereum created the Ethereum Foundation, a non-profit organization with HQ in Switzerland. The Ethereum Foundation monitors Ethereum’s open-source software development. Despite some rough patches, Ethereum’s crowdfunding effort was a success. Overall, Ethereum’s architecture focuses on numerous principles, including simplicity, universality, modularity, agility, non-discrimination, and non-censorship. Moreover, Ethereum introduced smart contracts to the crypto space.
Buterin’s Ethereum in China
Despite the Chinese government’s complex position on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the Ethereum platform is being actively utilized by companies around the nation. Vitalik’s character plays a role in this growth, especially given that he learned Chinese in a matter of months.
Ethereum is being explored and incorporated on institutional levels in China. For example, Peking University, China’s top-ranked university, established an Ethereum Laboratory in 2020. This lab focuses on protocol enhancements and application use cases in Chinese supply chains.
Buterin’s Ethereum in Russia
The fundamental concept of cryptocurrencies – their decentralized and uncontrolled nature – appears to be somewhat rebellious and anti-establishment. This is the polar opposite of what Russia stands for. Therefore, making Buterin an extremely popular and well-regarded figure in Russia.
More than 5000 people packed the Skolkovo Innovation Center in Moscow in August 2017 to hear Vitalik’s speech. He noted that Russia, along with the United Kingdom and Singapore, is one of the top three countries for blockchain technology research and testing. Furthermore, Moscow represents one of the largest clusters of Ethereum nodes.
Vitalik Buterin and Vladimir Putin Discuss The Potential of Ethereum. Source: Coindesk
Vitalik also stated that the Russian President, Vladimir Putin is aware of blockchain, implying that the excitement around the technology is at its peak. Buterin met with Putin during his visit, and this meeting was one of Vitalik’s trip conditions. He presented the possibilities for using the technology he built in Russia during the discussion, and the President supported the idea.
How Rich Is Vitalik Buterin?
With Ether’s recent advances, Vitalik Buterin, the 27-year-old co-founder of Ethereum, has claimed the title of the world’s youngest crypto billionaire. His estimated net worth is $1.5 billion. Buterin joined the billionaire club in early May 2021, when Ethereum’s native token broke the $3,000 barrier for the first time. However, he lost his status when Ethereum, along with the rest of the cryptocurrency market, fell to a low of $1,725.19 later that month.
Since September 2021, Ether has been gradually rising and hit its all-time high of $4,644.01 in November of the same year. However, because of the recent circumstances, there has been a market turnaround, and Ether declined to around $3,401.77, which is its current price. Nevertheless, Vitalik Buterin’s 325 thousand ETH in his wallet is worth approximately $1.5 billion.
The Future Plans
Buterin expects that Ethereum will rule the Metaverse and DeFi in ten years. The Metaverse is an idea for a massive virtual world in which individuals may interact as avatars and with digital items.
According to him, Ethereum is uniquely favorite to be a core feature of the Metaverse. He claims that this is the case because the internet allows items to travel between platforms.
Long-term cryptocurrency investors worry that regulation would limit the market’s current flexibility. However, investors and companies regard mass adoption and regulations as a source of stability that might lead to wider adoption. Markets become safer for regular people as regulations increase. Thus, Ethereum, with its diverse set of decentralized apps and services, has the potential to become “normal.”
Takeaways
- Vitalik Buterin is the founder of Ethereum, the biggest smart-contract compatible blockchain.
- Vitalik discovered Bitcoin in 2011 when he got involved in writing articles related to Bitcoin.
- In 2013, Buterin presented his idea of Ethereum in a whitepaper.
- The Ethereum team founded the Ethereum Foundation, a non-profit organization that monitors Ethereum’s open-source software development.
- Institutions in China are exploring and incorporating Ethereum.
- Buterin expects that Ethereum will continue to rule the Metaverse in the coming years.
- Vitalik Buterin is worth ~$1.5 billion.
- Buterin is currently the youngest crypto billionaire in the world.
