Ten Years of Ethereum: How the Blockchain Dream Has Grown?

Ten years ago, Ethereum launched with the promise of recreating the Internet. Today, it is the driving force behind a $75 billion decentralized economy, powering everything from meme coins to multi-billion dollar institutional finance. It started as a white paper by a teenage cryptographer and has now become the backbone of the world's programmable finance. This retrospective article will trace the breakthroughs, crises, and pivotal transformations of Ethereum—and pose questions about the future of this ever-awake blockchain in the coming decade. The Birth of Ethereum: Building a Global Computer The story of Ethereum began in 2013, when Vitalik Buterin envisioned a blockchain that was much more flexible than Bitcoin. Along with Gavin Wood, Charles Hoskinson, Anthony Di Iorio, and Joseph Lubin, Buterin proposed a decentralized world computer capable of executing smart contracts and storing trustless applications. By mid-2014, Ethereum had raised over 18 million dollars in its pre-sale. On July 30, 2015, the genesis block was mined, ushering in a new era of programmable blockchain. Buterin's white paper introduces smart contracts, self-executing code, automating agreements without the need for intermediaries. This is not only a technical leap; it is also a philosophical shift towards large-scale decentralized coordination. In just a few hours, it will be the ten-year anniversary of the founding of Ethereum, all this history comes to mind, with co-founder Joseph Lubin being one of the ceremonial NFT torchbearers.

DAO Hack: Crisis and Fork The first existential crisis of Ethereum came very quickly. In 2016, The DAO - an early decentralized venture fund - raised $150 million in ETH. However, a vulnerability in the fund's smart contract allowed an attacker to steal 3.6 million ETH, worth about $11 billion at the time. The community faces a key question: should the blockchain maintain its immutability or should it be rewritten to fix the issues? Meanwhile, Toby Hoenisch, the CEO of TenX, has been specifically named as the culprit. A controversial hard fork, supported by over 85% of the network, reversed the vulnerability and returned the stolen funds. Those who disagreed continued to use Ethereum Classic (ETC). This event reshaped Ethereum culture, exposing the risks of unverified code. It also sparked a persistent debate about governance, proving that Ethereum is not just code—but a community. ICO Boom: Ethereum becomes a fundraising tool Ironically, the failure of The DAO paved the way for the next explosive use case of Ethereum: In the initial coin offering (ICO). The ERC-20 standard allows anyone to easily issue tokens on Ethereum. By 2017, projects like EOS, Tezos, and Bancor had raised billions of dollars. Ethereum has become a decentralized Kickstarter, allowing startups to bypass traditional fundraising channels. However, the gold rush has also attracted scammers, causing a wave of strong criticism from regulators, especially from the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission). However, Ethereum has found a fit between the product and the market. It is the platform to launch new economic systems. DeFi Summer: A New Financial Architecture The year 2020 marked another revolution for Ethereum – Decentralized Finance (DeFi). Protocols like Uniswap, Aave, Compound, and MakerDAO provide lending, borrowing, trading, and yield farming services without the need for trust. The total value locked skyrocketed to over $11 billion during the "DeFi Summer."

DeFi demonstrates the combinatory potential of Ethereum, highlighting how applications can build upon each other like Lego blocks. However, this success has also put pressure on the network, causing service fees to skyrocket. This excludes small users from the game and highlights the urgent need for scalability. However, this innovation cannot be overlooked. DeFi has proven that Ethereum not only hosts applications but is also rewriting the financial rules. The merger: From an energy-guzzler to a pioneer of efficiency In September 2022, Ethereum underwent The Merge, transitioning from proof of work (PoW) to proof of stake (PoS). This reduced energy consumption by over 99.95% and turned ETH into a deflationary asset, thanks to EIP-1559. This is a historic technical achievement. Ethereum has changed its consensus mechanism mid-way, helping the network align with global sustainable development goals. However, scalability has emerged as the next frontier, driving focus on Layer 2 solutions (L2). After the merger: Expand the deposition layer The roadmap of Ethereum has evolved after the merge. In 2023, the Shapella upgrade allowed for the withdrawal of staked ETH. In 2024, Dencun ( Cancun-Deneb ) introduced proto-danksharding ( EIP-4844 ), reducing Layer 2 data fees through "blobs". Platforms like Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base have rapidly developed, pushing Ethereum's effective throughput to over 250 transactions per second (TPS). Organizations have taken notice. BlackRock's tokenization fund BUIDL, launched in 2024, operates on Ethereum. "Ethereum started as a smart contract platform. Ten years later, it has solidified its growing share of global finance: ETH ETFs in the U.S., ETH in the treasuries of companies and DAOs, and large organizations like BlackRock are tokenizing funds on Ethereum," Hart Lambur, co-founder of Risk Labs, said in a statement to BeInCrypto. The recent Pectra upgrade in 2025, with EIP-3074 and Verkle Trees, further enhances the user experience (UX) and data processing of wallets. This lays the groundwork for broader adoption and modular blockchain design. Interoperability is the next big leap forward. Although there have been advancements in scale, the user experience (UX) of Ethereum is still fragmented. Switching between L2s can be slow, costly, and challenging for non-experts. "The ultimate goal is really very simple. A giant payment and exchange network connecting every blockchain. If most assets are tokenized — money, stocks, bonds, real estate — then Ethereum will become the payment and settlement layer for everything of value on the internet," Lambur explained. Notably, this vision relies on addressing the (UX) user experience regarding interoperability. Ethereum can currently scale ( thanks to L2). However, this has disrupted the experience, as moving between chains is cumbersome and costly. The CEO of Risk Labs added: "Fix that bug and Ethereum will be like a unified network again - closer to its original promise." Lambur believes that the next battlefield will be the economy, where chains of stores will start competing for liquidity just like banks compete for deposits. "Loyalty programs, discounts, and incentives to keep users' assets on their chain," he said. This change could reshape the DeFi economy and accelerate the development of the multi-chain ecosystem but is settled in Ethereum. Shaping the cryptocurrency landscape On the occasion of its 10th anniversary, Ethereum has done more than just exist. It has shaped the era of digital assets, pioneered the development of smart contracts, propelled DeFi, created NFTs, and laid the foundation for DAOs. The global developer community, 100% uptime, and long-term adaptability make it not just a blockchain but also the infrastructure for a decentralized internet. According to Lambur, the goal of interoperability is quite clear. Users will be able to move and swap any asset on any chain to any other asset on any other chain instantly and at a low cost. This opens up the network effect for encrypted assets, laying the foundation for the next decade of Ethereum. From a hacked DAO to a multi-billion dollar cryptocurrency market on Wall Street, the development trajectory of Ethereum is indeed magnificent.

If Bitcoin is digital gold, then Ethereum is the foundation of Web3, and this is not just resilience. It is growth.