There’s a story I’ve always wanted to tell properly—a story about a young man who changed the entire crypto world.

In 2014, a young Russian man came to Hangzhou to attend an exhibition. At the time, his name was Vitalik Buterin, and later everyone called him V God. At the event, he generously distributed 5,000 virtual coins, hoping to help people understand his technology. But you know what happened—almost everyone doubted him, and some even cursed him as a scammer to his face. However, those 5,000 coins that had been given away for free ended up climbing to $150 million. That was Ethereum—ETH.

I think this story is more exciting than Bitcoin. The reason V God created Ethereum came from an experience in childhood. When he was between 13 and 16, he was addicted to World of Warcraft, and his favorite was playing as a mage. One time, after a game update, Blizzard directly deleted his favorite skill. In that moment, he realized that under centralized systems, all players are weak. That realization changed the trajectory of his life. He began to think about whether there was a way to break decentralization, until he discovered Bitcoin at 17.

The decentralized nature of blockchain deeply attracted V God, but he soon found Bitcoin’s limitations. In late 2013, he published a paper that analyzed Bitcoin’s pros and cons in detail, and also laid out Ethereum’s potential—a platform that could be used to build all kinds of decentralized applications. The moment the paper was released, it caused a sensation, and the Bitcoin community widely praised it. In July 2014, Ethereum officially launched its crowdfunding and successfully raised 31,000 Bitcoins.

But in 2016, something happened that nearly destroyed everyone’s confidence. A project called “The DAO” was hacked, and 3.6 million ETH were stolen. V God and the Ethereum Foundation decided to hard fork to reverse the stolen funds, but some miners insisted on not changing. As a result, the network split into two chains: Ethereum (ETH) and Ethereum Classic (ETC, now priced at $9.46).

The bull market of 2017 changed everything. ETH’s price skyrocketed, and graphics cards were in short supply. Almost all new projects chose to conduct ICOs on Ethereum. EOS, QuarkChain, and others raised funds through ETH. This frenzy continued until September 4, when countries began banning ICOs.

March 12, 2020 was a dark day. ETH crashed from $1500 to $87. Investors panicked and sold off. But later that same year, DeFi exploded. The total value locked in decentralized finance protocols exceeded $10 billion, growing by more than 2000%. Projects like YFI saw gains reaching thousands of times, and nearly all DeFi was built on Ethereum.

2021 was another legend. ETH’s price surged to $4.95K, up 16,000 times from its initial issuance price. Virtual world land and NFT projects were also worth millions of dollars.

Later, Ethereum transitioned from PoW to PoS, and L2 networks were launched. People found new opportunities to get rich—by participating in testnet trials and receiving airdrop rewards. Many people created hundreds of addresses, earning millions or even tens of millions of dollars.

Now we’re entering the era of L2 competition. As the Ethereum mainnet’s load increases, transactions get slower and more expensive, and various L2 solutions have emerged. Competitors keep coming, such as Arbitrum (ARB, current price $0.14), Optimism (OP, current price $0.15), and Starknet (STRK, current price $0.05). In the future, the crypto world will be a contest among L2s, and the ultimate winners will be widely recognized.

V God and Ethereum’s story is full of challenges and opportunities. It’s not just a technical story—it’s a story about how to seek breakthroughs in a centralized world. Whether you’re a newcomer or a veteran, you should pay close attention to Ethereum’s development. Right now, ETH is trading at $2.29K. This project has already become a miracle in the blockchain world, offering everyone the possibility of wealth and opportunity.