Ethereum’s 9th Birthday

Tuesday, July 30, 2024, marks the ninth birthday of Ethereum, the second-largest blockchain by market capitalization. Network co-creator Vitalik Buterin celebrated on social media:

“Happy 9th birthday, Ethereum. Looking forward to seeing what the next decade brings.”

Blockchains typically have two founding dates: the publication of the whitepaper and the launch of the network, leading to controversies around anniversary celebrations. With Ethereum’s initial coin offering complicating matters, many, including Paul Dylan-Ennis, a lecturer at the University of Dublin, argue that the actual birthday is the launch day. He explains:

“Today is definitively Ethereum’s actual birthday. It is the day in 2015 when the network launched and the first block was mined. The celebration of the ICO event is a confusing fad.”

Historically, important dates are often noted, such as the publication of Bitcoin’s whitepaper (October 31, 2008) and its Genesis block (January 3, 2009). For Ethereum, however, it’s more complex. The conception of a general-purpose blockchain took place in 2013, when Buterin first shared his vision. Additionally, various drafts of the Ethereum whitepaper existed, leading to confusion over the canonical version. Dylan-Ennis candidly states:

“I personally say November 27, 2013, because that is when Vitalik sends the earliest version of the whitepaper to people he thinks will work on it.”

The publication date is another matter, marked as 2014 purely from a GitHub perspective. However, Buterin declared the final version complete on December 10, 2014, regardless of ongoing edits.

Ultimately, the Ethereum community commonly recognizes the actual anniversary as the mining of the first block. James Prestwich, CTO and co-founder of Nomad, expressed a straightforward view:

“Ethereum’s birthday is the day the first block was mined. Conception dates are just people bragging about having sex.”

On this day nine years ago, early contributors like Gavin Wood and Vlad Zamfir gathered in Berlin to celebrate the launch as the first block went live.