How Ethereum came into existence

The idea of Ethereum was conceived in 2013 by Vitalik Buterin who was 19 years old at the time. Vitalik was drawn into computer games initially, similar to many of his peers. His father, also a computer scientist, introduced him to Bitcoin, which Vitalik embraced and started exploring with enthusiasm. He co-founded Bitcoin Magazine in 2011 and worked as a journalist there. He also collaborated on colored coin projects. You probably remember colored coins, which we covered in detail in the previous chapter about Bitcoin. They enable basic implementations of smart contracts and digital assets on the Bitcoin blockchain. Vitalik wanted to expand the concept of colored coins to enable larger, more flexible and powerful applications to run on the blockchain. When he faced resistance to his idea from Bitcoin core developers, he decided to launch his own...