[Tutorial]: Ethereum’s Journey – From Frontier to Programmable Money
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A concise history of the protocol that made smart contracts a reality
1️⃣ The Whitepaper & Frontier Launch
- October 2013: Vitalik Buterin publishes “A Next-Generation Smart Contract and Decentralized Application Platform”
- July 30 2015: Frontier network goes live with 5 ETH block rewards
- Early adopters ran nodes on home computers… excitement and bugs in equal measure!
2️⃣ Homestead & the DAO Crisis
- March 2016: Homestead stabilizes the network and simplifies transaction fees
- June 2016: The DAO hack drains 3.6 million ETH
- Community splits—hard fork creates today’s Ethereum (ETH) and Ethereum Classic (ETC)
This crisis defined Ethereum’s governance and resilience.
3️⃣ Metropolis Upgrades
Between 2017–2019, two major releases improved performance:
- Byzantium (Oct 2017) adds privacy tech (zk-SNARKs) and lowers gas costs
- Constantinople (Feb 2019) brings efficiency gains and paves the way toward Proof-of-Stake
These upgrades laid the groundwork for future scalability.
4️⃣ DeFi Summer & ERC-20 Explosion
- 2020: DeFi Summer sees Uniswap, Compound, Aave and many more soar
- Hundreds of ERC-20 tokens launch, TVL (Total Value Locked) explodes
- Ethereum cements itself as the backbone of decentralized finance
Liquid staking, yield farming, flash loans—all born on Ethereum!
5️⃣ The Merge & EIP-1559
- August 2021: EIP-1559 burns a base fee every block, making ETH partly deflationary
- September 15 2022: The Merge transitions from PoW to PoS – energy use drops ~99.9 percent
- Validators now secure the network by staking 32 ETH
This was Ethereum’s most significant milestone—shifting to eco-friendly security!
6️⃣ Rollups & the Road Ahead
- Optimistic Rollups (Optimism, Arbitrum) and zk-Rollups (zkSync, StarkNet) fight congestion
- Shard Chains on the roadmap promise massive throughput increases
- Smart wallets, account abstraction, and cross-chain bridges are on the horizon
Ethereum’s evolution continues—stay curious and keep building!
Your Next Steps- Read Vitalik’s original whitepaper to see the founding vision
- Explore the DAO postmortem to understand governance challenges
- Watch Merge livestreams or keynotes for deep dives
- Join an Ethereum community call and share your story
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