- A diverse group of technologists gave birth to the Ethereum project.
- Among all eight co-founders, Vitalik Buterin is still deeply embedded in Ethereum’s core development and community.
- Despite internal divisions, the Ethereum founding team each helped seed a unique part of the project.
Ethereum, the world’s second-largest digital asset by market cap, was officially founded in 2014, making Wednesday, July 30 its 10th anniversary.
A decade ago, a group of eight founders came together to launch what would become the most influential smart contract blockchain in the world.
While Ethereum’s impact has surged recently, thanks to renewed corporate interest and institutional investment, its original founders have largely gone their separate ways.
Some have launched rival blockchains, while others have stepped away from the spotlight entirely.
In honor of Ethereum’s 10th birthday, CCN is looking back at the eight founders who helped bring this platform to life.
Vitalik Buterin
Vitalik Buterin, a Canadian-Russian programmer, first proposed Ethereum in 2013 after co-founding and writing for Bitcoin Magazine since 2011.
Since Ethereum’s inception, Buterin has remained the face of the platform and one of its most influential voices.
As a leading figure at the Ethereum Foundation, he has been instrumental in driving upgrades across the network.
Last year, Buterin announced a series of ambitious milestones for Ethereum, each named “The Surge,” “The Verge,” and “The Scourge.”
These technical upgrades, though complex for non-developers, aim to make Ethereum faster, cheaper, and more censorship-resistant.
Buterin remains deeply engaged with the Ethereum network and the broader crypto ecosystem.
He frequently publishes in-depth essays on topics ranging from zero-knowledge proofs to decentralized governance.
In recent years, he has also emerged as a philanthropist, donating significant portions of his crypto wealth to pandemic relief, AI safety research, and open-source development.
Gavin Wood
Gavin Wood, a British computer scientist, co-founded Ethereum and served as its first Chief Technology Officer.
He authored the influential yellow paper, which transformed Buterin’s original white paper into a formal technical specification—laying the foundation for the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
Wood also created Solidity, Ethereum’s native programming language, which enabled developers to write smart contracts and decentralized applications.
However, by 2016, Wood had parted ways with Ethereum.
He later cited frustration over Ethereum’s slow development as a key reason for his departure.
Wood went on to found Polkadot, launched via the Web3 Foundation and Parity Technologies—both co-founded by him.
Polkadot is a multichain network that enables different blockchains to interoperate via its central Relay Chain. It has since emerged as one of Ethereum’s most notable rivals.
Charles Hoskinson
Charles Hoskinson was briefly, but significantly, involved in Ethereum’s founding, leaving the project by June 2014 after serving as CEO.
His exit stemmed from a fundamental disagreement with the other founders, particularly Vitalik Buterin.
Hoskinson wanted Ethereum to be a for-profit corporation, a view that clashed with the nonprofit ethos supported by Buterin and others.
After his departure, Hoskinson founded Input Output Global (IOG) in 2015 and launched Cardano.
Unlike Ethereum’s fast-paced development style, Cardano has positioned itself as a more methodically engineered alternative.
Over the years, Hoskinson has been vocal in his criticisms of Ethereum, often taking jabs on social media and lamenting what he sees as a lack of recognition for Cardano’s innovations.
“Not fueling hostilities but I am truly at a loss that Cardano can never be mentioned as an innovative ecosystem over on team E,” Hoskinson said in response to an X follower in November 2023.
“V is rediscovering what we’ve been working on for almost a decade and it’s like a new revelation,” he wrote. “It’s extraordinary that we never get a shout-out.”
Joseph Lubin
Unlike some other founders who went on to build rival platforms, Joseph Lubin has remained steadfast in his commitment to Ethereum.
In early 2015, he founded ConsenSys, a blockchain software company that has become one of the main builders in the Ethereum ecosystem.
Among ConsenSys’ most widely used tools is MetaMask, a crypto wallet and browser extension that allows users to access Ethereum-based applications with ease.
In May, Lubin was appointed chairman of SharpLink Gaming, a NASDAQ-listed firm formerly focused on sports betting technology.
Following his appointment, the company pivoted to become a corporate Ethereum treasury.
SharpLink now holds over 438,000 ETH, worth approximately $1.69 billion, making it one of the largest corporate Ethereum holders globally.
Anthony Di Iorio
Canadian entrepreneur and early Bitcoin investor Anthony Di Iorio was one of Ethereum’s key early funders.
After becoming passionate about Bitcoin in its early days, Di Iorio met Buterin at a Toronto Bitcoin meetup group in 2012.
Di Iorio made headlines in 2021 when he announced he was stepping away from the crypto industry, citing concerns over personal safety.
“It’s got a risk profile that I am not too enthused about,” Di Iorio said. “I don’t feel necessarily safe in this space. If I was focused on larger problems, I think I’d be safer.”
He now focuses on Decentral Inc., a company he founded to develop secure and privacy-oriented digital tools.
Di Iorio has distanced himself from high-risk crypto ventures or those requiring public-facing roles.
Mihai Alisie
A Romanian Bitcoin advocate, Mihai Alisie co-founded Bitcoin Magazine with Vitalik Buterin and played a vital role in Ethereum’s early development, including helping establish the Ethereum Foundation.
In October 2015, he left Ethereum after serving as its Chief Innovation Officer and Vice President to launch the AKASHA Project.
AKASHA is a social media platform built on Ethereum that claims to promote free expression and decentralized governance. It continues to explore Web3 innovations today.
Alisie remains active in the wider Ethereum community.
Amir Chetrit
Amir Chetrit, a U.S.-Israeli national, is among the most low-profile and secretive of Ethereum’s founders. He met Buterin at a Bitcoin conference in September 2013.
Buterin later joined Chetrit on a project that aimed to manage real-world assets on Bitcoin.
Chetrit had begun rethinking traditional finance after the 2008 crash and soon joined Ethereum’s founding team.
However, he came under criticism for his lack of contribution and eventually stepped away from the project.
Chetrit has since stayed out of the public spotlight, supporting initiatives from behind the scenes.
Jeffrey Wilcke
Jeffrey Wilcke, a Dutch software engineer, was involved with Ethereum from the beginning and created the original Go implementation of the platform.
Known as Geth, this client remains one of the most widely used Ethereum clients today.
Since publicly departing from Ethereum in 2019, Wilcke has launched a game development studio, Grid Games, alongside his brother.
The studio is reportedly building a sci-fi inspired massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG).
“Inspired by games like Anarchy Online, Star Wars Galaxies, Neocron, and WoW, and a passion for immersive world-building, our fast-growing team of multinational talent is using Unreal Engine 5 to build a revolutionary MMORPG that blends traditional philosophies with trailblazing innovation,” the studio’s LinkedIn page states.
