Vitalik Buterin (https://vitalik.ca) conceptualized Ethereum in November, 2013. The critical idea proposed was the development of a Turing-complete language that allows the development of arbitrary programs (smart contracts) for blockchain and decentralized applications. This concept is in contrast to Bitcoin, where the scripting language is limited in nature and allows necessary operations only.
The following table shows all the releases of Ethereum starting from the first release to the planned final release:
Version |
Release date |
Olympic |
May, 2015 |
Frontier |
July 30, 2015 |
Homestead |
March 14, 2016 |
Byzantium (first phase of Metropolis) |
October 16, 2017 |
Metropolis |
To be released |
Serenity (final version of Ethereum) |
To be released |
The first version of Ethereum, called Olympic, was released in May, 2015. Two months later...