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| 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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