The life script of Vitalik Buterin: from a WoW dropout to the godfather of encryption.

When it comes to Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, many people only know him as a genius programmer, Cypherpunk, and philanthropist. However, his life story is actually more outrageous than most biographies.

From Passive Beating to Active Table Flipping

A turning point in 2010 directly changed Vitalik's life trajectory. At that time, he was playing World of Warcraft, and a brutal update caused his character to lose all skills and achievements. This guy realized one thing: centralized systems are garbage, I want to create something decentralized.

Turning around, he discovered Bitcoin. At first, he rejected it - “These are just numbers with no intrinsic value.” But after listening to his dad's nagging a few times, he began to seriously study this new thing.

I'm not going to university anymore

In 2013, Vitalik Buterin couldn't sit still in college. He wrote the first version of the Ethereum white paper and then decisively dropped out. This guy raised 18 million dollars through an ICO (1 BTC exchanged for 2000 ETH) and teamed up with a group of like-minded geeks to start building the network.

The turning point came quickly. In 2021, ETH soared from a few hundred to over 3000, and Vitalik Buterin briefly became the world's youngest crypto billionaire. But the volatility of the industry… In 2022, he fell back down again. As of now, his net worth is about 613 million USD, mainly consisting of ETH.

Earning money is not the goal

The interesting thing about this guy V is that he really doesn't care how rich he is. What is his ultimate goal? To reduce the transaction fees on Ethereum to below 5 cents, so that ordinary people can also use decentralized finance.

The Dencun upgrade in 2024 is already evident — the transaction fees on layer two networks have dropped directly from several dollars to just a few cents. The mainnet hasn't completely resolved this yet, but the direction is correct.

Crazy Donation List

• During the pandemic in 2021: donated 1 billion USD worth of SHIB for relief efforts.
• 2022 Ukraine Crisis: Donated 1.5 million USD
• 2018: Donated 2.4 million to life extension research

This guy's philosophy is: The money earned is to promote human progress, not to pile it up in the bank.

Controversy

Recently, developer Kane Warwick criticized Vitalik Buterin for his lack of support for DeFi. Vitalik responded: “I only oppose those short-term high-yield scams (like liquidity mining); I support projects that are truly valuable.”

Additionally, there is a theory online that he is a KGB agent or an alien. This guy is quite calm and has shared these crazy theories.

The Final Easter Egg

Not many people actually know about his private life. In 2024, there were rumors online about him and a certain American singer, as well as a certain actress, but they were all baseless.

His fashion taste is truly exceptional. He wore Shiba Inu pajamas at the Dencun upgrade release conference and sang live while discussing wallet security at the Singapore conference… This guy is just living in a way that's beyond ordinary.

Core Summary: Vitalik is not pursuing financial freedom for himself, but rather financial freedom for all of humanity. This is why his topics are always in demand within the crypto community.