Recently revisited the story of Vitalik, and I still feel quite emotional. In 2014, a young Russian guy came to Hangzhou, handed out 5,000 Ether at a conference, and almost no one believed him at the time. But what happened? Those 5,000 free coins eventually skyrocketed to $150 million… Today, that’s almost unimaginable.

Speaking of Vitalik, his growth experience is actually quite inspiring. Between ages 13 and 16, he was obsessed with World of Warcraft, especially loving the Warlock class. But after a game update, Blizzard directly removed his favorite skill. This incident made Vitalik deeply realize the problems of centralized services—players are always in a passive position. From then on, he started thinking about whether there was a way to break this pattern. It wasn’t until he discovered Bitcoin at age 17 that he found his direction.

The decentralization feature of blockchain attracted him, but after in-depth research, Vitalik found Bitcoin’s limitations were significant. So he decided to create Ethereum. The paper published at the end of 2013 sparked a huge reaction in the Bitcoin community, with many people reaching out to collaborate. In July 2014, Ethereum launched a crowdfunding campaign, raising 31,000 Bitcoins in one go, which was a huge success at the time.

But the road for Ethereum wasn’t all smooth. The DAO incident in 2016 nearly destroyed the entire ecosystem. 4.36 million Ether were stolen by hackers, and Vitalik and the foundation decided to hard fork to recover the losses. However, some disagreed with this decision, insisting that code is law, and ultimately Ethereum Classic (ETC) was born. Interestingly, after the fork, ETC attracted a large number of investors’ attention.

The 2017 bull market was truly crazy. As Ethereum boomed, domestic exchanges quickly listed ETH trading pairs. Even more insane, because Ether could only be mined with GPUs, global GPU prices soared—some people sold GPUs where 9.5 out of 10 cards were used for mining.

That year, ICOs also exploded. Projects like EOS and Quantum Chain raised funds on Ethereum. Even virtual pet projects could easily push ETH prices higher. This frenzy lasted until September 4, when it was finally halted.

March 12, 2020, was a dark day. The bear market combined with the Fed’s circuit breaker caused Ether to plummet from $1,500 to $87, wiping out many investors’ confidence. But at this moment, DeFi suddenly exploded. By 2020, the total value locked in DeFi protocols exceeded $10 billion, growing over 20-fold. Projects like YFI surged by thousands or even tens of thousands of times, completely changing market sentiment.

2021 was another story. Ether soared to a high of $4,850, a 16k-fold increase from its initial issuance. Virtual land, NFT projects—all became hot topics at the time.

In recent years, Vitalik has driven Ethereum through the transition from PoW to PoS, and Layer 2 networks have successfully launched. This has spawned new opportunities—participating in testnets to earn airdrops. Many people created hundreds of Ethereum addresses to test various projects, earning millions or even tens of millions of dollars as a result.

Now, competition among Layer 2 solutions is intensifying, with projects like ARB, OP, STRK, ZKEVM, LINEA, and BASE vying for market share. In the future, the real competition in crypto will be among Layer 2 networks, and the winners will gain widespread recognition.

Vitalik and Ethereum’s story is truly full of challenges and twists. From a mocked young man to a core force driving the entire blockchain world forward, it’s a legend in itself. Whether you’re a newcomer or a veteran, you should closely follow Ethereum’s developments. This project has already created countless miracles and offers opportunities for everyone.