Thursday 9 November 2017

The Boy Genius Behind the $28.5 Billion Cryptocurrency Ethereum

Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin
There are tons of twentysomething entrepreneurs all over the world, undoubtedly coding up the Next Big Thing this very moment.

And then there's Vitalik Buterin.

Unlike most men his age -- or any age, for that matter -- Buterin, 23, has invented a new kind of money, called Ethereum. It's currently worth $28.5 billion in total, growing all the time (with the occasional plunge to keep things interesting). Ethereum is a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, made up of digital tokens called ether. As with all cryptocurrencies, people are primarily using it as a speculative investment asset.

For the crypto-impaired, Buterin's invention differs from Bitcoin in a few key ways. For starters, Ethereum acts as a decentralized computing system for all kinds of applications, allowing key data to be recorded on the blockchain. (The point of using a blockchain instead of a normal database is that no one can unilaterally make changes; consensus has to be established across the entire network.) Ethereum's existence is largely responsible for the recent surge of ICOs, some of which have raised hundreds of millions of dollars.

Unlike the creator of Bitcoin -- who was an unknown person or group of people going by the name Satoshi Nakamoto -- Buterin is very much present. He attends conferences and maintains a lively Twitter presence.

Not that Buterin isn't enigmatic and eccentric in his own right. Word on the street is that Buterin is the kind of prolific traveler who is barely able to spend time at home. (His Twitter bio lists his location as "Earth." @VitalikButerin) He has dual reputations for being a very, very smart guy, especially when it comes to math, and simultaneously an odd duck. He likes cat purses and unicorn sweaters, for instance.


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