Ethereum, one of the most popular blockchains after Bitcoin (BTC), will celebrate its 10th anniversary next year (2025). With a market value of $410 billion, the Ethereum-based cryptocurrency Ether (ETH) ranks second only to Bitcoin.
In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto released the Bitcoin whitepaper, marking the beginning of the blockchain era. Bitcoin was initially created as a new form of digital currency with a primary function of payment and accounting. Its design was relatively simple and lacked fancy features.
This prompted many developers to think about expanding the scope of blockchain applications, which led to the birth of the Ethereum blockchain.
The smart contract feature of Ethereum has given it its current position in the blockchain world. Smart contracts are like iOS/Android on smartphones, providing developers with tools and platforms to create various types of apps. However, the apps developed using Ethereum smart contracts are called decentralized applications (DApps). Financial applications like DeFi and GameFi are related to Ethereum, opening up more innovation and opportunities for the future of blockchain.
Vitalik Buterin, a Russian-Canadian genius, is one of the most prominent creators of Ethereum. He entered the gifted children’s class in the third grade of elementary school to study mathematics, economics, and programming. At the age of 19, he published the Ethereum whitepaper and co-founded the Ethereum project with Gavin Wood, Charles Hoskinson, Anthony Di Iorio, and Joseph Lubin.
The goal of Ethereum is to establish an open and decentralized blockchain platform that allows developers to easily build and deploy smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps).
Ethereum has a unique position in the blockchain world, thanks to the concept of smart contracts, which allows developers to create various types of DApps. After a year of preparation, the Ethereum mainnet was officially launched on July 30, 2015. Since then, the Ethereum blockchain has been operational, allowing users to trade Ether on the network and develop various applications. This day is considered Ethereum’s official “birthday.”
Over time, the Ethereum ecosystem has continued to grow. Developers have created various applications, and the largest decentralized exchange (DEX) Uniswap, NFTs, and GameFi have all emerged around Ethereum, bringing infinite possibilities to the world.
According to data from Dune Analytics, there are over 50 million smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain, and the number of wallet addresses has reached 260 million. These data show that Ethereum has an unshakable position in the blockchain and crypto community.
Looking ahead to the next decade, Vitalik Buterin believes that the next five years will be crucial for Ethereum, and there are three key points to focus on.
First, Ethereum needs to be faster and cheaper to provide users with better experiences and attract more users. Currently, Ethereum processes about 20-30 transactions per second compared to Visa’s approximately 1,700 transactions per second. Ethereum’s transaction fees can also be higher than the price of buying NFTs during peak periods. The Ethereum team is continuously working on updates and upgrades to address these issues and improve Ethereum’s shortcomings.
Second, non-financial applications will have a greater impact. Projects like Farcaster, a decentralized social protocol, and Lens Protocol, a decentralized community platform, have been successful on the blockchain and effectively replaced centralized social media platforms.
Third, identity verification on the blockchain is a challenge. Many projects distribute tokens and NFTs as rewards to early participants, and users can take advantage of this by creating multiple accounts. Identity verification can help reduce such unfair practices. Decentralized identity technologies and applications are rapidly developing, such as the WorldCoin system, which uses iris scanning to generate a “World ID” for identity verification, and Gitcoin Passport, which verifies identities through various means and assigns a score.
As Ethereum continues to thrive, many games and traditional financial industries are entering the blockchain field and collaborating with Layer2 chains. As the second-largest blockchain, users expect Ethereum to continue to realize a more fair, transparent, and open world in various fields.