Vitalik Buterin is a Russian-Canadian programmer and writer who is credited for co-founding the Ethereum blockchain. An early adopter of Bitcoin since 2011, he developed Ethereum as a blockchain network that can run decentralized applications (dApps). Before working on his development of Ethereum, Buterin was a co-founder and writer for Bitcoin Magazine.
In 2018, Vitalik Buterin was named in the 30 Under 30 by Forbes Magazine in the Finance category for his work on Ethereum. He was aged 23 and was the youngest professional to make the cut in the year. In 2022, Forbes listed him in the Hall of Fame of 30 Under 30.
With his creation, Vitalik Buterin is widely credited for making blockchain technology mainstream. Support for smart contracts on Ethereum has given rise to several key trends in the crypto market, including decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the metaverse, GameFi, and several other practical applications of the distributed ledger technology beyond cryptocurrencies.