30 Reasons to Love Vitalik Buterin, on His 30th Birthday

Vitalik
Buterin,
the
co-creator
and
spiritual
leader
of
Ethereum,
turned
30
today.
It’s
a
date
that
he
refers
to
as
the

“end
of
my
childhood.”
Buterin
has
achieved
much
in
his
time
so
far,
and
there’s

much
more
to
accomplish.
The
job
of
following
Satoshi
Nakamoto
—
a
pseudo-no-person-hero
was
hard,
but
Buterin,
by
avoiding
all
ego,
has
been
up
to
the
task.
In
honor
of
his
many
achievements,
CoinDesk
has
come
up
with
30
reasons
to
love
Buterin.
The
list
is,
of
course,
incomplete.

1
–
Vitalik
tells
it
like
it
is:
In
2017,
at
the
height
of
the
initial
coin
offering
(ICO)
boom,
when
the
total
crypto
market
cap
topped
half
a
trillion
dollars,
Buterin
tweeted
“have
we
*earned*
it?”
A
fair
question,
considering
many
(but
not
all)
of
the
biggest
ICOs
of
the
time
have
delivered
nothing.

2
–
His
heart
is
in
the
right
place:
Vitalik’s
mission
in
creating
Ethereum
was
to
build
a
“world
computer”
that
can
run
any
conceivable
application.
But
throughout
his
career,
he
has
constantly
focused
the
spotlight
on
projects
working
to
solve
real
world
issues.

3
–
He
repays
favors:
Buterin
learned
about
Bitcoin
from
his
father
at
the
age
of
17.
Now,
both
of
his
parents,
Dmitry
Buterine
and
Natalia
Ameline,
are
working
in
the
crypto
industry.
Ameline
is
helping
to
build
Ethereum
layer
2
Metis.

4
–
Buterin
was
a
bitcoiner’s
bitcoiner:
In
2011,
around
the
time
he
was
introduced
to
Bitcoin,
Buterin
started
writing
about
the
first
cryptocurrency
for
now
the
defunct
publication
Bitcoin
Weekly
in
order
to
learn
everything
he
could
about
the
emerging
technology.
Towards
the
end
of
that
year,
Buterin
co-founded
Bitcoin
Magazine
and
became
one
of
it’s
most
prolific
writers,
covering
and
thinking
up
ideas
for
Bitcoin
that
are
still
being
discussed,
like
introducing
native
smart
contracts
and
scaling
the
chain
through
secondary
layers.

5
–
He’s
humble
as
Pi:
He’s
been
on

Forbes

30
under
30
list,

Fortune

40
under
40
list,
has
received
honorary
doctorates
and
has
been
the
subject
of
many
a
magazine
profile.
Yet,
no
one
can
credibly
say
Buterin
is
in
it
for
the
money
or
fame.
Go
on,
say
it.
Be
wrong.

6
–
Buterin
has
added
to
the
discipline
of
economics:
Together
with
Glen
Weyl
and
Zoe
Hitzig,
Buterin

helped
develop
a
mechanism
for
fairly
distributing
funds
without
the
need
for
a
central
decision
maker,
called
quadratic
voting.
Today,
the
system
is
working
across
crypto,
particularly
in
the
decentralized
app
Gitcoin,
which
provides
funding
for
public
goods.

7
–
He’s
generous,
not
just
with
his
time,
but
money:
Buterin
has
made
numerous
charitable
donations
in
recent
years,
including
to
AI
safety
causes,

human
longevity
research
and
other
more
practical
concerns.

8
–
Even
when
being
catty,
he’s
doing
good:
In
2021,
during
the
first
break
out
of
“dog
tokens,”
the
team
behind
Shiba
Inu
sent
Buterin
about
5%
of
the
circulating
supply
of
SHIB,
unprompted,
in
a
blatant
attempt
to
market
the
project.
Buterin
decided
to
donate
those
coins,
worth
over
$1
billion
at
the
time,
to

India’s
Crypto
Covid
relief
fund.

9
–
He
speaks
out
for
causes
he
believes
in:
Although
born
in
Russia,
Buterin
has
spoken
out
against
his
native
country’s
invasion
of
Ukraine,
even
tweeting
this
all-time
gem,

“Ethereum
is
neutral,
but
I
am
not”
on
the
first
day
of
the
invasion.

10
–
He’s
a
lover
of
the
simple
things:
Buterin’s
current
bio
on
Twitter/X,
“mi
pinxe
lo
crino
tcati,”
apparently
translates
to
“I
drink
the
green
tea,”
in
the
constructed,

rules-based
language
Lojban.
He
is
also
known
to

mix
green
tea
with
red
wine
(we
can’t
all
be
perfect).

11
–
Impeccable
fashion
sense:
Whether
it’s
a

unicorn
t-shirt,

furry
suit
or
a

pair
of
glasses
straight
out
of
The
Matrix,
Vitalik
certainly
knows
how
to
pull
off
a
look.

12
–
He
is
comfortable
playing
the
fool:
Here’s
Vitalik

sort
of
doing
the
“Badger
Dance”
at
the
opening
ceremonies
of
Edcon
2018
in
Toronto,
Canada.

13
–
He
has
a
voice
all
his
own:
Somewhere
between
the
Professor
from
The
Simpsons
and
Kermit
the
Frog,
Buterin’s
unique
tonal
expression
is
one
for
the
history
books.

See
also:



Vitalik
Buterin
and
Birth
of
Ethereum

14
–
Buterin
lets
his
thoughts
evolve,
and
isn’t
afraid
of
challenging
himself
later:
Here’s
a
tweet
thread
of

Buterin
rethinking
dozens
of
the
things
he’s
said
and
written
about.
It
was
not
the
first
or
last
time
either.

15
–
He’s
not
afraid
to
critique
his
heroes:
Many
crypto
leaders
cite
James
Dale
Davidson
and
William
Rees-Mogg’s
“The
Soverign
Individual”
as
a
favorite
book,
including
Buterin.
In
2020,
he
wrote
a
detailed
walkthrough
of
the
book’s
core
concepts,
and
how
they
apply
to
the
digital
world
today,
nearly
30-years
on
from
the
date
of
publication,

discussing
the
things
they
get
right
and
wrong.

16
–
He’s
an
advocate
for
accessibility:
Not
only
is
Ethereum
designed
to
be
open
and
available
to
anyone
with
an
internet
connection,
Buterin
is
constantly
thinking
of
ways
to
lower
fees,
increase
access
and
subsidize
use,
including
some

controversial
means
that
other
blockchain
advocates
might
discard.

17
–
He
knows
how
to
throw
a
shindig:
Just
ask
anyone
who
went
to

Zuzalu,
in
Montenegro,
a
week-long
retreat
and
study
session
for
people
interested
in
crypto
and
longevity
research.

18
–
He
practices
what
he
preaches:
Buterin
is
a
frequent
user
of
decentralized
applications,
from
social
media
apps
like
Farcaster
to
donation
protocols
like
Gitcoin,
he
may
just
be
the
ideal
Ethereum
user.

19:
He
sees
rival
chains
as
zero-plus
not
zero-sum:
When
Solana
was
ravished
after
the
collapse
of
FTX
and
Sam
Bankman-Fried,
who
was
closely
tied
into
the
blockchain’s
ecosystem,
Buterin
tweeted:
“smart
people
tell
me
there
is
an
earnest
smart
developer
community
in
Solana,
and
now
that
the
awful
opportunistic
money
people
have
been
washed
out,
the
chain
has
a
bright
future.
Hard
for
me
to
tell
from
outside,
but
I
hope
the
community
gets
its
fair
chance
to
thrive.”
Not
to
overstate
the
case,
but
this
single
tweet
did
a
lot
to
reaffirm
conviction
in
a
rival
project.
He
doesn’t
kick
when
others
are
down,
but
instead
offers
a
hand
up.

20
–
Although
a
techno-optimist,
he’s
practically
minded:
Take
his

blog
post
yesterday
on
the
ways
AI
and
crypto
could
interact.
Buterin
placed
a
large
amount
of
emphasis
on
areas
he
thought
were
easiest
to
get
right,
i.e.
having
AI
agents
work
on-chain
where
the
“underlying
mechanism
continues
to
be
designed
roughly
as
before.”

21
–
He
knows
how
to
coin
a
term:
From
the
recent
Defensive/Decentralized/Differential
Acceleration,
or
d/acc
(a
play
on
the
hyper-aggressive,
pro-tech
and
pro-capitalism
e/acc),
which
proposes
that
humans
take
a
considered
approach
to
technological
progress,
to
the
blockchain
“trilemma,”
Buterin
has
coined
many
words
in
common
parlance.

22
–
He’s
a
bit
of
an
anarchist
(in
a
good
way):
In
addition
to
creating
Ethereum,
Buterin
has
made
contributions
to
a
number
of
more
radical
projects,
including
Cody
Wilson’s
supposedly
censorship-resistant
DarkWallet.

23
–
He
pays
homage:
The
word
Ethereum
is
often
said
to
come
from
Ethernet,
or
the
physical
backbone
of
the
internet.
(Although
some
say
it
is
also
derived
from
“ether,”
what
was
known
as
the
fifth
element
in
medieval
times,
which
Buterin
came
across
while
reading
Wikipedia.)

24
–
He
gives
away
ideas
if
he
doesn’t
have
time
to
build
them:
Just
take

Uniswap,
the
largest
decentralized
exchange.

25
–
He’s
a
master
developer:
This
one
seems
self-explanatory,
but
if
you
need
an
example
look
at
the
Merge,
a
moment
that
is
often
described
as

“changing
out
an
airplane
engine
—
mid
flight.”

26
–
He
embodies
the
best
aspects
of
Ethereum’s
“social
layer”:
In
the
aftermath
of
the
infamous
DAO
attack,
Buterin
initially

advocated
for
a
soft
fork
of
Ethereum,
so
that
the
chain’s
history
would
not
be
rewritten.
In
time,
in
part
due
to
technical
challenges,
the
community
opted
for
a
“hard
fork,”
leading
to
two
versions
of
the
chain,
Ethereum
and
Ethereum
Classic.
This
moment
is
key
in
the
history
of
crypto,
because
it
shows
that
code
is
not
always
law,
and
people
have
a
say
over
how
a
project
should
develop.

27
–
He’s
not
in
it
for
the
money:
In
a
recent
blog
post,
Buterin
lamented
how
money-focused
the
crypto
industry
has
become.
He
wants
to
make
“Ethereum
Cypherpunk
again.”

See
also:


Vitalik
Buterin
on
Ethereum’s
‘Roads
Not
Taken’

28
–
He
has
a
sense
of
humor:
I’m
not
quite
sure
if
he
coined
the
terms

Merge,
Verge,
Surge,
Purge
and
Splurge
to
describe
the
coming
phases
of
Ethereum
development,
but
he
certainly
goes
along
with
it.

29
–
He
seeks
revenge
(when
warranted):
It’s
well-documented
that
the
inciting
incident
for
the
creation
of
Ethereum
was
after
Buterin’s
warlock
character
in
World
of
Warcraft
was,
in
his
words,

“nerfed.”
After
game
developers
Blizzard
downgraded
his
favorite
Siphon
Life
spell,
Buterin
began
to
think
of
ways
to
give
people
control
over
their
digital
lives.
He’s
also

tracking
Craig
Wright’s
movements.

30
–
Vitalik
is
the
leader
crypto
has
always
needed:
In
the
absence
that
Bitcoin
founder
Satoshi
Nakamoto
left,
someone
has
had
to
keep
the
ethos
of
decentralization,
censorship-resistance
and
credible
neutrality
alive.
Buterin
has
faced
the
touch
job
of
remaining
in
the
limelight
while
building
a
technology
that
runs
affront
to
many
of
the
most
powerful
institutions
today.
As
he
writes
in
his
recent
manifesto,
he’s
doing
it
because
he
thinks
it’s
right,
that
the
aims
of
open
source
and
open
access
technologies
will
ultimately
benefit
the
world:
“I
believe
that
these
[technologies]
are
deeply
good,
and
that
expanding
humanity’s
reach
even
further
to
the
planets
and
stars
is
deeply
good,
because
I
believe
humanity
is
deeply
good.”
Crypto
is
good,
in
part,
because
Vitalik
is
good.