Who Created Ethereum and Who Controls It Now?

What Is Ethereum?

Ethereum is the open-source blockchain network that popularized decentralized applications (dApps), a new generation of apps that do not rely on centralized authorities like banks or servers to function. Essential to Ethereum’s innovation are smart contracts, code-bound agreements that execute automatically according to predetermined conditions. Smart contracts play a large role in many of the products and services that make up Ethereum’s Web3 ecosystem, replacing roles traditionally played by trusted, centralized parties in overseeing transactions.

While the Ethereum network does leverage its native ether (ETH) currency throughout its network and ecosystem, Ethereum technology itself is better conceptualized as a globally distributed computational environment rather than a cryptocurrency alone. Ethereum-based phenomena like decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have demonstrated the potential of Web3 throughout a spectrum of sectors and use cases. Upon the project’s launch in 2014, its core tech (including smart contracts and ERC tokens) presented a novel and ambitious concept. Implementing this technology required the input of many different people and groups.

Who Is the Founder of Ethereum?

Ethereum was originally proposed by Vitalik Buterin, a Russian-Canadian programmer who remains a de facto figurehead for Ethereum. Inspired by Bitcoin, Buterin released a whitepaper in 2013 describing an alternative blockchain network that would go beyond Bitcoin’s proposed financial use cases to allow developers to create their own dApps using a new programming language. The open-ended aspirations enshrined in the Ethereum founder’s whitepaper created a huge buzz among early crypto proponents, and soon after publication several talented developers reached out to Buterin to help bring his vision to life.

As a result, Ethereum is attributed to multiple founding members. In addition to Buterin, the earliest co-founders of Ethereum include:

• Charles Hoskinson: Charles Hoskinson is an American entrepreneur who was briefly chief executive at Ethereum. However, he left the project in 2014 due to disagreements with Buterin regarding the project's open-source, nonprofit structure. Hoskinson went on to co-found IOG (Input-Output Global), an engineering and research company responsible for creating Cardano.

• Anthony Di Iorio: Di Iorio was an early proponent of Bitcoin who contributed to much of Ethereum’s early success in terms of branding and marketing.

• Mihai Alisie: Mihai Alisie is a Swiss tech and media entrepreneur who served as the Editor-in-Chief of Bitcoin Magazine, which he created with Buterin. Alisie played a key role in setting up the Swiss company that gave Ethereum a legal and financial foundation back in its nascent stages, and also served as Vice President of the Ethereum Foundation (a nonprofit organization created to support Ethereum platform development and research) until 2015.

In early 2014, the Ethereum project grew to include three other key figures, who are also often publicly referred to as co-founders of Ethereum:

• Joseph Lubin: Lubin is a Princeton-educated computer scientist who worked for Goldman Sachs prior to onboarding with Ethereum. Lubin is credited with co-founding the Ethereum Foundation and creating ConsenSys, a Brooklyn-based startup focused on seeding the Ethereum ecosystem with infrastructure and applications.

• Gavin Wood: Gavin Wood is an English computer scientist who created the first Ethereum testnet. Wood drafted the Ethereum yellow paper, the “technical bible” that outlines the specification for the Ethereum network’s ledger and smart contracts. After leaving Ethereum in 2016, Wood went on to found Polkadot.

• Jeffrey Wilcke (only sometimes mentioned): Jeffrey Wilcke is a programmer who transcribed a version of the Ethereum platform in Google’s Go programming language, which later turned into Go Ethereum (or Geth). Despite being a key player in the early days of Ethereum, Wilcke eventually decided to part ways with Ethereum and form his own gaming company, Grid Games.

Who Controls Ethereum Now?

Ethereum is an open-source blockchain platform built by hundreds of thousands of developers from around the world. Since Ethereum is a decentralized network, no single entity controls or owns it. While Ethereum founders created the network’s initial infrastructure, a significant degree of control over the network has transitioned to users of the Ethereum community in the form of ETH coins via its coin launch. Any crypto user who runs a network node or holds ETH has the ability to validate Ethereum’s transactions and secure the network. Decentralized by design, Ethereum’s success relies on the participation of its diverse community to function.

While the Ethereum Foundation was created to support and fund the development of Ethereum-related technologies, the organization shares this responsibility with many organizations and independent developers. The rapid growth of participants in the Ethereum ecosystem means that the Ethereum Foundation (along with the project’s de facto “leader” and progenitor Vitalik Buterin) is incapable of making unilateral changes to Ethereum.

Even though Ethereum is widely touted as a successful decentralized project, some critics argue that the network is not sufficiently decentralized. In January 2022, the top 100 Ethereum addresses held roughly 40% of the total supply of ETH, compared to just 14% for bitcoin (BTC), However, as Ethereum is an open-source project, it’s up to developers to decide what Ethereum should be used for. As of April 2022, there are over 200,000 independent developers and organizations working on advancing the Ethereum project – many of whom are helping prepare the Ethereum network for its long-awaited Proof-of-Stake (PoS) upgrade to the Ethereum Consensus Layer (formerly known as Ethereum 2.0).