The idea for Ethereum was born in late 2013: a whitepaper written by Vitalik Buterin, published in November 2013, outlined a blockchain that, unlike Bitcoin, could run arbitrary, programmable smart contracts.
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Summer 2014: a public crowdsale raises roughly 31,000 BTC (then ~$18 million) to fund development.
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July 30, 2015: mainnet launches, codenamed “Frontier.”
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Co-founders: Gavin Wood (Yellow Paper, Solidity), Joseph Lubin (later Ethereum Foundation, ConsenSys), Charles Hoskinson (later founded Cardano/IOHK), Anthony Di Iorio, Mihai Alisie.
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2016: after “The DAO” hack, the community opted for a contested hard fork — the original chain continued as Ethereum Classic (ETC).
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September 15, 2022: “The Merge” — transition to Proof-of-Stake, cutting energy use by ~99.95%.
Unlike Bitcoin, ETH has no fixed, final supply cap — issuance and any token burning (EIP-1559, since 2021) are governed by protocol-level rules.