Ethereum, the world‘s second-largest blockchain, turns ten years old today. On 30 July 2015, the network went live for the very first time—and it hasn‘t gone offline for a single minute since. What has happened over the past ten years, and how is the milestone being celebrated today? Time for a slice of cake.

How Did Ethereum Start?

Ethereum was founded by Canadian Vitalik Buterin. As early as 2013, he released a whitepaper outlining a platform for decentralised applications and smart contracts. The launch of the platform, known as Frontier, marked the beginning of the Ethereum blockchain. At the time, you could purchase ETH for just $0.31 per token. The aim of Ethereum was to create a blockchain with more flexibility than Bitcoin‘s original design. Ethereum allowed for the development and use of smart contracts, enabling a much broader range of applications beyond digital currency alone.

Major Changes in the Network

Over the years, Ethereum has undergone significant developments. The first version, Frontier, had no user interface and was primarily a ‘live test‘ for developers to deploy decentralised applications and for miners to set up their operations. In March 2016, the more stable Homestead version was released. This allowed for the development of the first real projects. Experimental features were removed, and overall network functionality improved. Transaction fees were also better aligned, making the network more accessible. The Homestead upgrade laid the foundation for future upgrades, such as Metropolis and Serenity (Ethereum 2.0).

Multiple Hard Forks

Ethereum has experienced several hard forks. A hard fork is a change to the protocol that is not backward compatible with the current network, causing a split and resulting in a new blockchain. One of the most well-known Ethereum hard forks is The DAO, due to a major incident. Initially, The DAO was an innovative smart contract aimed at creating a decentralised organisation where users could manage their own funds and vote on which projects should receive funding.

Unfortunately, The DAO was hacked, resulting in the theft of roughly $50 million worth of Ether. This led to a controversial hard fork of the Ethereum network, known as “The DAO Fork”, where the stolen Ether was returned to the original owners. The hard fork caused significant division within the Ethereum community, eventually leading to the creation of Ethereum Classic (ETC), a split from the original blockchain.

There have been other hard forks in Ethereum‘s past. These all fell under the Metropolis upgrade, the final phase of Ethereum 1.0:

Byzantium (October 2017): This hard fork improved network security and the efficiency of smart contracts. The mining reward was reduced from 5 to 3 ETH.

Constantinople (February 2019): Gas prices were lowered and the network became more efficient. The reward was further reduced to 2 ETH.

Istanbul (December 2019): This upgrade enhanced network efficiency and added multiple opcodes to the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine), improving security, privacy, and scalability.

Muir Glacier (January 2020): This update prepared users for Ethereum 2.0 by making block mining more difficult.

Berlin (May 2021): This hard fork not only improved network efficiency but also reduced gas prices.

Major Network Upgrade: Ethereum 2.0

In 2022, Ethereum underwent a major update: the network transitioned from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake via The Merge. In December 2020, the Beacon Chain—a proof-of-stake blockchain—was launched. The Merge completed the transition from the proof-of-work chain to the Beacon Chain, marking the beginning of Ethereum 2.0. Instead of mining blocks to earn rewards, as with Bitcoin, users could now stake their Ether and be rewarded for verifying transactions. Prior updates had already made it harder to mine blocks, encouraging users to switch to the new Proof-of-Stake model. This launch, also known as Serenity, aimed to massively scale the network. Ethereum 2.0 not only made the network more efficient and environmentally friendly, but it also aimed to enable the blockchain to process millions of transactions per second.

How Is Ethereum's Birthday Being Celebrated?

Today, Ethereum is the second-largest blockchain in the world. The Ethereum Foundation is celebrating the birthday in style. A livestream will be held on the YouTube channel starting at 16:30 CEST, where Vitalik Buterin himself will speak. Not only will key milestones be discussed, but also plans for the future. At 15:26:13 UTC, a special announcement will be made—this is the exact moment Ethereum‘s Genesis Block was launched in 2015. 24 hours after the stream, you‘ll be able to mint a free “Torch NFT”. In addition, major hackathons, community events, and meetups will take place in cities like Hong Kong. Special gatherings are also planned in cities across the globe, including Sydney, Christchurch (New Zealand), Singapore, New York, Accra (Ghana), Berlin, and, not to be forgotten, Amsterdam!

Increased activity on the Ethereum network is expected. Many will be watching closely to see how it affects the price of Ether. Will you be joining the celebration?