History of Ethereum in Timeline

Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain platform renowned for its smart contract capabilities. Its native cryptocurrency, Ether (ETH), ranks second in market capitalization behind Bitcoin. Ethereum's functionality enables the creation and deployment of decentralized applications (dApps), offering a versatile infrastructure for a wide range of uses, including decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and more. Its programmability distinguishes it from Bitcoin, enabling developers to build custom applications and protocols on the blockchain. Ethereum is currently transitioning to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, aiming to improve scalability and energy efficiency.

December 2013: Initial Ethereum Founding

In December 2013, Ethereum was initially founded by Vitalik Buterin, Anthony Di Iorio, Charles Hoskinson, Mihai Alisie, and Amir Chetrit.

2013: Ethereum Initial White Paper

In late 2013, Vitalik Buterin initially described Ethereum in a white paper. Buterin argued that blockchain technology could benefit from applications beyond just money and needed a more robust language for application development, potentially linking real-world assets to the blockchain.

January 2014: Ethereum Announced at Bitcoin Conference

In January 2014, Ethereum was announced at the North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami. Founders gathered to develop the concept, leading to further development and definition of the project.

August 2014: Ethereum Public Crowd Sale

From July to August 2014, development was funded by an online public crowd sale, in which participants bought the Ethereum value token (ether) with bitcoin.

2014: Ethereum Prototype Development

During 2014, several codenamed prototypes of Ethereum were developed over 18 months by the Ethereum Foundation as part of their proof-of-concept series.

2014: Additional Founders Added

In early 2014, Joseph Lubin, Gavin Wood, and Jeffrey Wilcke were added as founders of Ethereum, expanding the core team.

July 2015: Ethereum Network Launch

In July 2015, the Ethereum network went live, marking a significant milestone in its development. This launch allowed developers to deploy decentralized applications (dApps) and users to interact with them.

July 2015: Frontier Launch and Genesis Block

On July 30, 2015, "Frontier" marked the official launch of the Ethereum platform. Ethereum also created its "genesis block" which contained 8,893 transactions and a block reward of 5 ETH.

October 2015: Etheria NFT Project Deployed

In October 2015, the first NFT project, Etheria, was deployed to the Ethereum network.

November 2015: ERC-20 Token Standard Proposal

In November 2015, Fabian Vogelsteller proposed the ERC-20 (Ethereum Request-for-Comments #20) Token Standard, implementing an API for fungible tokens within smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain.

January 2016: Ethereum Average Transactions

As of January 2016, Ethereum averaged about 25 transactions per second, and this number did not change after the move to proof-of-stake.

June 2016: The DAO Exploitation

In June 2016, The DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization on Ethereum, was exploited, resulting in the theft of US$50 million of DAO tokens. This event triggered a debate about a hard fork to recover the funds, ultimately splitting the network.

2016: The DAO Attack

In 2016, The DAO was attacked, highlighting the issue that bugs and security holes on public blockchains are visible to all but cannot be fixed quickly.

March 2017: Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) Creation

In March 2017, various blockchain startups, research groups, and Fortune 500 companies announced the creation of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) with 30 founding members.

May 2017: EEA Membership Expansion

By May 2017, the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) had expanded to 116 enterprise members, including ConsenSys, CME Group, Cornell University's research group, Toyota Research Institute, Samsung SDS, Microsoft, Intel, J. P. Morgan, Cooley LLP, Merck KGaA, DTCC, Deloitte, Accenture, Banco Santander, BNY Mellon, ING, and National Bank of Canada.

July 2017: EEA Surpasses 150 Members

By July 2017, the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) had grown to over 150 members, including MasterCard, Cisco Systems, Sberbank, and Scotiabank.

2017: CryptoKitties Launch

In 2017, CryptoKitties, a blockchain game featuring digital cat artwork as NFTs, was launched on the Ethereum network. It gained significant mainstream media attention and exposed Ethereum to a wider audience. The game also highlighted concerns about Ethereum's scalability.

2017: Network Congestion Problems

In 2017, the Ethereum network experienced congestion problems related to CryptoKitties.

January 2018: Ether as Second-Largest Cryptocurrency

By January 2018, ether was the second-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization, only behind bitcoin.

January 2018: ERC-721 NFT Standard Introduction

In January 2018, the ERC-721 Non-Fungible Token Standard was published, introducing the first official NFT standard on Ethereum. This allowed Ethereum to become central to the digital collectibles market.

2019: Virgil Griffith Arrested

In 2019, Ethereum Foundation employee Virgil Griffith was arrested by the US government for presenting at a blockchain conference in North Korea.

2019: CFTC Chairman Declares ETH a Commodity

In 2019, former CFTC Chairman Heath Tarbert stated that "ETH is a commodity", asserting the CFTC's regulatory authority over Ethereum.

October 2020: DeFi Platforms Grow

In October 2020, the DeFi platform Uniswap experienced significant growth, increasing its liquidity from US$20 million to US$2.9 billion. By October 2020, over US$11 billion had been invested in various DeFi protocols.

March 2021: Visa Settles Stablecoin Transactions Using Ethereum

In March 2021, Visa Inc. announced that it began settling stablecoin transactions using Ethereum.

April 2021: Investment in ConsenSys

In April 2021, JP Morgan Chase, UBS, and MasterCard announced that they were investing US$65 million into ConsenSys, a software development firm building Ethereum-related infrastructure.

April 2021: "Berlin" Network Upgrade

On April 14, 2021, the "Berlin" network upgrade was implemented on Ethereum.

August 2021: Brief Blockchain Fork

On August 27, 2021, the Ethereum blockchain experienced a brief fork due to clients running different incompatible software versions.

2021: Ether's Market Position Maintained

As of 2021, ether maintained its position as the second-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization, continuing to trail only bitcoin.

2021: Virgil Griffith Pleads Guilty

In 2021, Virgil Griffith pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

September 2022: Ethereum's "The Merge" Update

On September 15, 2022, Ethereum underwent a major transformation known as "The Merge", transitioning its consensus mechanism from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS). This update significantly reduced the blockchain's energy consumption by over 99%.

September 2022: Ethereum Merged to the Beacon Chain

On September 15, 2022, at block 15537393, Ethereum merged to the Beacon chain in an event called Paris as part of The Merge update.

September 2022: Impact of Proof-of-Stake Transition

On September 15, 2022, the switch from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake cut Ethereum's energy usage by over 99%. However, the impact on global energy consumption may be limited.

2022: UCC Amendments Classify ETH as a CER

In 2022, Amendments to the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) introduced "controllable electronic records" (CERs), classifying digital assets like Ether as CERs under UCC Article 12.

March 13, 2024: "Dencun" Upgrade Launch

On March 13, 2024, the "Dencun" upgrade went live, including EIP-4844 (Proto-Danksharding) and introducing "blobs" for general-purpose data availability, reducing costs for L2 networks.

2024: EEA Leadership Change

In 2024, Paul Brody from EY was announced as the new chairperson of the EEA board, and Karen Scarbrough from Microsoft became the new executive director. Vanessa Grellet from Arche Capital also joined as a new board member.

March 2025: Ethereum Throughput

In March 2025, the maximum theoretical throughput for Ethereum is 142 TPS, given its current 36M gas limit, 12s blocks, and 21k gas cost for ETH transfers.

2025: Pectra Expected Launch

According to Ethereum.org, the Prague-Electra ("Pectra") upgrade is expected to launch in mid-2025, bringing updates such as EIP-7251 (increasing staking amount per validator) and EIP-7702 (allowing EOA addresses to use smart contract functionality).