On July 30, 2015, the Genesis Block for the Ethereum protocol was mined.
The chain has become the second most important blockchain in the cryptocurrency ecosystem and has reached a market capitalization of over $230 billion, according to CoinGecko. Needless to say, its eight official founders have each profited greatly.
To honor this anniversary, Protos has taken a look at what they’re still publicly working on.
Vitalik Buterin
Vitalik Buterin is perhaps the individual most strongly identified with the Ethereum project, serving as its sincere and awkward spokesperson and guiding light.
Unlike many of the other founders, he’s continued to work deeply on the Ethereum project, even remaining deeply involved with the Ethereum Foundation.
This makes him a frequent target of criticism, as many traders have been frustrated with what they see as the Ethereum Foundation not doing enough to support the project, or at least the price of the project.
Anthony Di Iorio
Anythony Di Iorio is one of the only co-founders to try to find an exit from the crypto ecosystem.
In 2021 he told Bloomberg, while he was trying to sell his cryptocurrency accelerator, that he doesn’t “feel necessarily safe in this space” and stated that crypto is “really a small percentage of what the world needs.”
However, exiting isn’t always easy or clean. He’s since founded a firm called Andiami, which claims to be “building the tools to power the decentralized future.”
That project hasn’t posted on X since early 2023, or to its YouTube, Instagram, or blog since 2022, suggesting that it may be making slow progress on that stated goal.
Charles Hoskinson
Charles Hoskinson saw what Ethereum was doing and immediately thought that a different chain would be the solution to the problems that he saw.
He’d go on to found Cardano.
Hoskinson has also attempted non-crypto projects like his failed Hoskinson Health and Wellness Clinic.
Cardano has underperformed Ethereum substantially year-to-date. Ethereum has lost approximately 36% of its value, and Cardano has lost approximately 55%.
Hoskinson’s time at Ethereum was controversial and he was eventually forced out. According to Laura Shin’s Cryptopians, he’d make extraordinary claims, even implying he was Satoshi Nakamoto.
Mihai Alisie
Mihai Alisie was the founder of Bitcoin Magazine, where Buterin also worked before founding Ethereum.
Alisie’s LinkedIn still describes them as the founder of the AKASHA Project.
Unfortunately though, that foundation closed down several months ago.
Amir Chetrit
Amir Chetrit was the founder of Colored Coins before joining Ethereum.
His time at Ethereum was controversial; he and Hoskinson were eventually forced out in what Laura Shin called “Game of Thrones Day.”
Since then, Chetrit has reportedly continued working in crypto but with a low profile.
Joseph Lubin
Joseph Lubin has been one of the most entrepreneurial of the Ethereum co-founders, most prominently through ConsenSys.
ConsenSys has been a central player in the crypto ecosystem, being involved with the MetaMask wallet and the Infura infrastructure for Ethereum.
The SEC had previously sued ConsenSys over MetaMask, but this suit was dropped during the second Trump administration.
Gavin Wood
Gavin Wood started as a Bitcoin developer before joining Ethereum.
He then went on to form Parity Technologies, which released the Parity client, and launched the Polkadot network, meant to be a “parachain” connecting various blockchains.
Jeffrey Wilcke
Jeffrey Wilcke keeps a low profile.
He worked on Mastercoin before joining Ethereum and helped create the Geth (Go Ethereum) client.
Since then, he’s founded Grid Games with his brother, though when we tried to access its website, it timed out.
Broadly, many of the founders who started this so-called “world computer” have moved on from it.
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