Sometimes I wonder, how much are the 5,000 Ethereum that Vitalik gave away at the Hangzhou conference worth today? That story is truly magical—a young Russian guy came to China with a revolutionary idea, but most people thought he was a scammer. Yet, a few years later, those tokens that no one wanted initially are now worth $150 million.

Speaking of Vitalik’s growth story, it’s actually quite interesting. Between the ages of 13 and 16, he was obsessed with World of Warcraft, especially loving to play Warlock. Until one game update, Blizzard removed his favorite skill, which suddenly made him realize a problem: on centralized platforms, players are always at a disadvantage. At that moment, Vitalik started thinking about whether there was a way to break this model. When he was 17, he discovered Bitcoin, and the decentralized nature of blockchain deeply attracted him, but he also saw Bitcoin’s limitations. That’s how Ethereum was born.

At the end of 2013, Vitalik published a paper titled “Ethereum: A Next-Generation Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform,” detailing his ideas. The paper received widespread praise from the Bitcoin community, and some people actively sought collaboration. In July 2014, Ethereum officially launched its crowdfunding campaign, successfully raising 31,000 Bitcoins. When Vitalik came to China that year, some believed in his vision, but others told him face-to-face that he was a scammer. Looking back now, this young man who was once doubted has changed the entire industry.

The DAO incident in 2016 was a turning point for Ethereum. 4.36 million ETH were stolen by hackers, and Vitalik and the Ethereum Foundation decided to perform a hard fork to reverse the stolen funds. However, some miners refused to change, which ultimately led to the split between Ethereum and Ethereum Classic (ETC). Interestingly, ETC also attracted many investors after the fork.

The bull market in 2017 made everything crazy. ETH started trading on major exchanges, and people discovered they could mine with graphics cards, causing GPU prices to skyrocket. That year, almost all projects launched ICOs on Ethereum, including EOS, Quantum Chain, and more. Virtual pet projects also boosted ETH prices, and this frenzy lasted until September 4, 2017.

The crash in March 2020 caused panic among many. ETH dropped from $1,500 to $87. But it was also that year that the DeFi ecosystem exploded. Applications of smart contracts became more widespread, with total value locked in DeFi protocols exceeding $10 billion, growing over 2000%. DeFi tokens like YFI even surged thousands of times, most of these projects built on Ethereum, further driving the ecosystem’s development.

In the 2021 bull run, Ethereum’s price soared to $4.95k, a 16k-fold increase from its initial issuance price. Virtual land and NFT projects became hot topics, and the entire market was filled with wealth effects.

As Vitalik pushed Ethereum from PoW to PoS and Layer 2 networks matured, new opportunities emerged. Many started testing projects on testnets and earning airdrop rewards. Some even created hundreds of new addresses, earning millions or even tens of millions of dollars.

Now, the focus has shifted to Layer 2 networks. Projects like ARB, OP, ZKS, STRK, and others are emerging rapidly. The future of crypto might be a competition among Layer 2 solutions.

Vitalik and Ethereum’s story is full of challenges and opportunities. From a doubted young man to creating industry-changing technology, and now to the Layer 2 era, this project has already created many legends. Whether you are a newcomer or a veteran, you should keep paying attention to Ethereum’s development. It has become one of the most remarkable miracles in the blockchain world.