Although only Vitalik Buterin comes to mind when Ethereum founders are mentioned, there are actually 8 co-founders of the popular blockchain network. However, the most well-known name is Buterin and he is currently actively working on the network.
Who Founded Ethereum?
Ethereum actually has 8 co-founders. During the development of the network, Vitalik Buterin recruited top developers and entrepreneurs to guide the creation process. These people became the founding partners of the project and contributed to this success. Ethereum founders can be listed as follows:
- Vitalic Buterine
- Mihai Alisie
- Anthony DiLorio
- Chief Chetrit
- Charles Hoskinson
- Gavin Wood
- Jeffrey Wilcke
- Joseph Lubin
Vitalic Buterine
Vitalik Buterin is a Russian-Canadian writer and programmer, founder of the Ethereum blockchain network. Buterin has been in the Bitcoin community since 2011, writing for Bitcoin magazine. Born on January 31, 1994, Buterin is recognized as the genius behind Ethereum, the second most valuable and recognized cryptocurrency in the world. When the estimations about Vitalik Buterin’s net worth are analyzed, sources reveal that he has an average wealth of over 1 billion dollars. Buterin’s ETH wealth is known to be over $407 billion. Buterin is one of the developers in the cryptocurrency market and one of the few billionaires in the world.
Mihai Alisie
Alisie was a member of Ethereum’s founding team due to her previous partnership with Buterin and her expertise in economic cybernetics. She was instrumental in establishing the Ethereum Foundation in Switzerland. She helped establish the legal framework for the pre-sale of ether and later emerged as vice president of the Ethereum Foundation. In 2015, Alisie set out to launch her own Ethereum-based project called Akasha.
Anthony DiLorio
Anthony Di Lorio was one of the financial sponsors of the Ethereum startup. It faded into the background after the team decided to choose a nonprofit business principle. Following his decision to choose a passive role, Di Lorio briefly worked as chief digital officer of the Toronto Stock Exchange before founding Decentral, the company behind the Jaxx digital wallet.
Chief Chetrit
Amir Chetrit had a working relationship with Buterin during his tenure at Colored Coins. Buterin asked Chetrit to join the founding team in December 2013. However, at a co-founder meeting in June 2014, other team members and Ethereum developers questioned Chetrit’s lack of input. At this meeting, Chetrit agreed to relinquish active involvement with Ethereum development while maintaining his position as co-founder.
Charles Hoskinson
Charles Hoskinson emerged as the CEO of the Ethereum startup in December 2013 and pressed the exit button after the team decided to promote a nonprofit architecture for the organization. This prompted Hoskinson to create a programmable version of the blockchain ecosystem called Cardano. The platform is currently considered one of the biggest rival blockchains to the throne of Ethereum.
Gavin Wood
Gavin Wood was one of the contributors in the early development phase of Ethereum. He earned the position of co-founder as a result of his programming contributions. He created the first Ethereum testnet and even published the yellow paper of the project, namely the technical specifications of the original whitepaper published by Buterin. Wood also recommended Solidity, the ecosystem’s main programming language. Wood currently works on the Web3 Foundation and Polkadot blockchain network.
Jeffrey Wilcke
Like Wood, Wilcke co-founded purely for his programming contributions. He was working on MasterCoin when he discovered Ethereum. He began independently writing the Google Go version of the platform. It currently focuses on game development studio Grid Games.
Joseph Lubin
Before joining the Ethereum team, Joseph Lubin had accumulated a wealth of experience in various fields. He later founded his own nonprofit, ConsenSys, which acts as an incubator for blockchain startups that want to use the Ethereum ecosystem. It has also been instrumental in some of the high-profile partnerships that Ethereum has secured over the years.
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