This is the story of Vitalik Buterin; The story of a genius whose IQ is as big as Einstein’s IQ, if not larger. The story of a boy who did not play Lego as little, but preferred to play in – and explore the possibilities with Microsoft Excel. A teenager who, at the age of 19 years back in 2014, moved from the hometown of Toronto to Zug, Switzerland, to develop what we now know as Ethereum. And moreover, the story of an adult man in the early 20’s, who learned to understand and speak sensible mandarin in just 4 months.

You can sense where we are heading. And it will be even wilder. We have gathered the threads of Vitalik Buterin’s life (so far) – and reproduced them to find out why and how he created the world’s second largest cryptocurrency; Ethereum.

Vitalik Buterin’s upbringing: from Russia to Canada

Vitalik was born January 31, 1994, in a city called Colomna in Russia, where he grew up until he reached 6 years. In 2000, his parents, Dmitry Buterin and Natalia Ameline chose to move to Canada in search of better job opportunities, where it was easier for Vitalik’s father to find a job related to his education as a computer engineer.

“Vitalik tought himself how to use Excel at age four.”
Dmitry Buterin, father of Vitalik Buterin

It did not take long before Vitalik’s teacher caught sight of his high intelligence. Among other things. They saw that Vitalik could multiply three-digit numbers over twice as fast as his peer classmates.

As a result, he was asked in class 3 to change class to a class of extra intelligent children. Here Vitalik’s flair flourished in particular for mathematics and programming, resulting in a natural interest in economics. It would later prove to be of great importance to his future.

But Vitalik’s intelligence had a backside. He was struggling to find his place in social contexts, which resulted in him becoming more or less socially awkward. It did not make any difference that many talked over his mind as they experienced him as this mathematical genius, which they had difficulty interacting with.

Vitalik drew more and more away from social contexts in his early teens when this time was especially marked by the fact that he sat in front of the computer. to explore the internet. But like many other peers, Vitalik also used tons of time playing World of Warcraft.

It was also all the while he played World of Warcraft that Vitalik first saw how centralized programs could act negatively. This was because his characters in the game changed characteristics during a World of Warcraft update. It did not fall well with Vitalik. It impacted him so badly that he never played World of Warcraft again.

He started at Aberald School – a private high school in Toronto, whose place had a major impact on Vitalik. Vitalik himself described his time at Aberald School as the best years of his life, as they changed his view of the way in which he wanted to live his life as well as his attitude.

Vitalik discovers Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies

It was originally Vitalik’s father who introduced him to Bitcoin back in 2011. At that time, the father had a software company through which he had heard about Bitcoin. A company that the father sold after just a few years, sold to focus on Blockchain technology, like Vitalik.

Vitalik did not find interest in either Bitcoin or Blockchain technology immediately. However, the decentralized element at both Bitcoin and Blockchain began to attract more and more attention from Vitalik over time. This led Vitalik to research more and more, resulting in a real interest from the then 17-year-old boy.

Vitalik became a larger and larger component of the online community around Bitcoin as well as cryptocurrencies in general. Since Vitalik did not have the money to buy Bitcoins, he made an agreement with a Bitcoin blog that he would get paid 5 Bitcoins for every article he wrote to the media. This was at the time a considerably low pay considering the fact that the value of Bitcoin at that time was just $0.8, although the sum might sound extreme if you compare it to Bitcoins current value.

Later in late 2011, Vitalik Buterin started the Bitcoin Magazine with a novelist, Mihai Alisie. Bitcoin Magazine was (and still is) one of the largest online media outlets dedicated to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. In the next few years, Vitalik split his time between the university, part-time job as research assistant and editor of Bitcoin Magazine.

In May 2013, Vitalik flies to San Jose, California, to attend a Bitcoin fair in Bitcoin Magazine. Here, Vitalik experiences for the first time that it is not only online that there is a community that is interested in Bitcoin, Blockchain and Cryptovaluta. But that makes sense also exists. Experiencing this results in an additional interest in Vitalik.

Vitalik on the way: from Canada around the world

In 2013, Vitalik chooses to drop out of the university to experience the world – and not least; experience Bitcoin as well as crypto-based companies around the world.

Here, Vitalik is traveling around the world – and experiencing a host of companies that work with cryptocurrencies, which further inspire and motivates Vitalik.

It is also during this long-term trip, that Vitalik gets the idea for Ethereum. During a trip in Israel, he meets two companies trying to do something similar to what Vitalik later tries with Ethereum. They tried to issue tokens and smart contracts – directly on Blockchain belonging to Bitcoin. It would allow financial contracts, etc. directly on the backbone of Bitcoin.

Vitalik started to question whether there was a smarter way to approach the task instead of directly using Bitcoin’s blockchain. In essence, he envisioned creating a new cryptocurrency dedicated solely to supporting development platforms for new cryptocurrencies, smart contracts, and tokens.

Vitalik shared his groundbreaking idea with the two Israeli companies, but they didn’t find it particularly compelling. Undeterred, he decided to pursue the project on his own.

Ethereum’s white paper

By the end of 2013, Vitalik Buterin published a white paper explaining the basic idea behind project Ethereum. He sent it to a couple of his closest friends, after which they forwarded it to some of their acquaintances. All in all, his white paper came into the hands of a handful of people.

Some of the friends and the other acquaintances found the project interesting, and some of them chose to take an active part in the development of Ethereum.

“When I came to the idea with Ethereum, my first thought was:” Okay, it’s too good to be true. “As later became apparent, the core idea behind Ethereum was good.”
Vitalik Buterin

Vitalik Buterin and the other members of the project published official Ethereum and how they intended Ethereum to work in January 2014.

Soon after, Vitalik Buterin and the remaining team chose to move to Zug in Switzerland, which later became known as Crypto Valley. Zug is still home to the Ethereum Foundation, which is the non-profit organization officially responsible for the development of Ethereum and its open source software.

At that time, when Ethereum had just moved to Zug – the team had little money to run for the project. They had attached a paper to the front door, where they wrote that one should be more than welcome to sponsor a cup of coffee. This is what Niklas Nikolajsen (founder of Bitcoin Suisse) who looked at the sidelines and advised Ethereum, previously explained.

From Zug in Switzerland later in 2014, Ethereum raised approximately 31,000 Bitcoins during its ICO (initial coin offering) which at that time was equivalent to 18,3 million USD.

The great amount that Ethereum raised made Ethereum the third biggest ICO raise worldwide at that time.

From numerous mistakes to success

Over the next year, Vitalik Buterin – and not least the team struggled to complete Ethereum. It was not immediately a natural process as they encountered numerous challenges with the project.

They attempted to undergo several prototypes that tried to do what they wanted. The last prototype was named; “Olympic” – and was technologically closest to what we today know as being Ethereum. This prototype also resulted in the first public beta test in which Vitalik Buterin released the prototype so that everyone around the world could test the network.

The prototype was still packed with numerous bugs, which resulted in Ethereum launching a reward program where one could get paid Ether if one (or more) bugs found. This corresponds to, for example, Google or Facebook which also is giving away money if you find weaknesses in their systems as hackers. Ethereum’s reward program is still in operation today.

On July 30, 2015 – Ethereum was officially launched, and the cryptocurrency was officially out of its beta. However, it was still a launch that was filled with bugs, which it was still considered a test. Over the next couple of months, Vitalik and the remaining team continued running Ethereum with the help of its community.

In 2016 – March 14, 2016 – Ethereum released an update, which was later considered its official launch. The update gave developers around the world greater freedom and a platform to create decentralized applications, tokens, smarts contracts, etc. on the Ethereum platform than they had before.

Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum – Now

As of today, Ethereum stands as the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market value. Ethereum powers thousands of applications, with developers and companies across the globe leveraging its technology, solidifying its reputation in the crypto community.

Ethereum is being used by thousands of applications, both developers and companies around the world – and has gradually created a supreme name in the crypto world. Back in March 2017, an alliance around Ethereum was established, aimed at researching, learning and exchanging knowledge about Ethereum technology in connection with highly complex applications across many industries. The alliance is called Enterprise Ethereum Alliance – and has over 500 members. The members include renowned companies like Microsoft, MasterCard, Intel, and Ernst & Young.

Ethereum is not perfect – yet. Ethereum continues to suffer wit scaling problems that make the cryptocurrency difficult to scale when additional network pressures occur. Developers around the world, as well as Ethereum Foundation, continue to make Ethereum better, more secure and more scalable, implementing updates that promise to improve the platform over time. One can, therefore, expect Ethereum to continuously improve over time.

Vitalik Buterin has transitioned from Zug to Singapore, where he leads the Asian division of the Ethereum Foundation. He still dedicates significant amounts of his time at Ethereum. He hopes, however, that in the future he can shift some of his focus from the development of Ethereum in order to focus on other things related to Ethereum.

Although Vitalik has not been the sole force behind Ethereum, he has played a pivotal role in its development, often serving as the public face of the project—much like Steve Jobs did for Apple. This contrasts sharply with Bitcoin, which has been without a central figure since Satoshi Nakamoto’s true identity remains unknown. Vitalik Buterin stands out not only for his remarkable intelligence but also for his unwavering belief in the potential of cryptocurrencies.

While the future of Ethereum and the broader cryptocurrency landscape remains uncertain, it’s likely that Vitalik will continue to influence the industry’s evolution in the coming years.

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Tron is a decentralized open-source cryptocurrency that relies on blockchain based peer-to-peer technology.

Tron was created to make it easy to award content creators who shares content online. The Tron system includes sophisticated storage and distribution capabilities, and one of the goals of Tron is to be an alternative to more costly solutions such as Apple Store and Google Play Store.

Tron´s plan for the future is to be a huge decentralized content distribution platform where users and content creators can reach each other without complicated middlemen interfering or taking a large cut of the profits.

One of the main driving individuals behind the creation of Tron has been Chinese entrepreneur and University of Pennsylvania graduate Justin Sun. He is the former Chief Representative of Ripple China and the founder of Peiwo App (commonly referred to as ”China´s Snapchat”). Three other notable members of the Tron team are the CTO Lucien Chen (formerly of Alibaba) and the technical experts Xiadong Xie and Maorong Lin.

Tron has received a lot of backing from other Chinese entrepreurs, including Dai Wei (CEO of OFO bike), Tang Binsen (founder of Clash of Kings), Xue Manzi (renowned angel investor), Hitters Xu (founder of Nebulas), and Chayong Wang (founder of China Equity Group).

How old is TRX?

The initial coin offering (ICO) for the TRX coin took place on September 9, 2017. Over 80 million USD was raised in just a few days, prompting Tron to tokenise TRX as a legitimate cryptocurrency before the year was over.

In early December 2017, TRX traded for 0.0020 USD. Before the month was over, the price had increased to 0.05 USD per TRX token and TRX had reached a market capitalization of 2.2 billion USD. This price boost was partly caused by the announcement of a partnership between Tron and Alibaba.com. 

Growth and trading price

The growth rate and trading price of TRX have fluctuated a lot since the launch, and both values tend to be heavily impacted by the release of announcements from the Tron team.

The trading price did for instance go up noticeably when the Tron team announced their intent to transfer TRX onto the Peiwo App, since that transfer would allow 10 million Peiwo users to exchange TRX coins with ease.

Another notable event took place in January 2018, when Tron entered into a partnership with the bicycle-sharing system oBike.

Since then, Tron has also partnered with Boafeng, a company commonly referred to as ”the Chinese  Netflix”. Boafeng boasts an impressive 200+ million users. 

The road map for Tron

The Tron team has released a detail plan where they outline their vision for Tron until 2027, divided into six stages.

Here is a brief  look at the six stages.

First stage: Exodus

This is the stage where a free peer-to-peer platform is launched for the distribution of entertainment industry content.

Second stage: Odyssey

This is the stage where the cryptocurrency TRX still use standard proof-of-stake.  Financial incentives are used to encourage content creators to come aboard.

Third stage: Great Voyage

During this stage, points such as divided management, supporter management and income payment will be addressed.

Fourth stage: Apollo

During this stage, Tron will launch personalized tokens for decentralized trading. The proposed deadline for this step is 2023.

Fifth stage: Star Trek

During this stage, Tron will focus on entering the gaming sector.

Sixth stage: Eternity

During this stage, developers will be given opportunity to create their own games. Also, users will be able to participate in fund raising events.

Coin supply & mining

The coin supply is approximately 100.000.000.000 (one hundred billions).

It is not possible to mine TRX tokens.

How can I buy TRX?

There are several different coin exchanges available online where you can purchase the cryptocurrency TRX and pay using an accepted traditional currency (e.g. USD) or any of the accepted cryptocurrencies (e.g. Bitcoin).

Examples of online sites where you can obtain TRX are Binance, Liquid, Bitstamp, Mercatox, CoinSpot, and Coinbase. 

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