30s Summary

Ethereum’s original technical guide celebrated its 11th anniversary, showcasing how far the decentralized finance (DeFi) applications have come. The language of self-executing, blockchain-based smart contracts sprung from Ethereum, and is now deeply integrated within the DeFi sphere. However, interoperability issues transfering assets between various networks have to be solved to ensure continuous adoption. Ethereum has also played a crucial role in boosting other sectors, like travel and tourism, and has facilitated millions of smart contracts and decentralized applications. Over the coming decade, its role in DeFi’s infrastructure is predicted to grow.

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Guess what? Ethereum’s original technical guide, or ‘white paper’, just celebrated its 11th birthday! This super important document was first shared by Ethereum’s co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, in an email back in November 2013. It’s pretty cool to think this was the first ever introduction to the concept of Ethereum – a smart contract/DAC platform.

Buterin did make a few edits, though, before he launched the first version on the Ethereum website. His version, which he dubbed a “next-generation smart contract and decentralised application platform”, was inspired by Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin network, developed in 2009.

Basically, Buterin’s new stuff sparked the idea of self-executing, blockchain-based smart contracts. This became the basis for the awesome decentralized finance (DeFi) apps we’re all using today, like yield farming, decentralized lending, borrowing, and staking.

So, Ethereum’s 11th birthday isn’t just about celebrating the past, it also highlights how much DeFi has grown – it’s now a real alternative to traditional banking systems. As said by James Wo, CEO of DFG, “DeFi enabled services like lending and swapping without any centralized intermediary, providing an alternative to traditional banking systems in a trustless and transparent manner.”

According to some useful stats from DefiLlama, lending is the second-biggest protocol category on Ethereum, with a total value of $32.8 billion across 460 protocols. Impressive, right?

But Ethereum’s not just shaking up financial services. It’s been an impressive innovator across other industries too – like travel and tourism. Pablo Castillo, CEO and Chief Technology Officer of Chain4Travel, says that “by bringing smart contracts to life, Ethereum filled a crucial gap in industries like travel and tourism.”

Castillo forecasts that, over the next decade, Ethereum will become even more central to DeFi’s infrastructure. But to make sure its adoption continues, Ethereum will need to overcome its current interoperability issues.

At the moment, transferring assets between different networks, like Ethereum, can be tricky and potentially risky – it’s a big problem that needs to be addressed.

In its first decade, Ethereum has become home to millions of smart contracts and thousands of decentralized applications (DApps). Alex Mizrahi, co-founder of the Chromia blockchain platform, speculates that Ethereum’s take-up rate could actually speed up over the next 10 years, specifically amongst institutions.

As Mizrahi puts it, “In the next 10 years, I only see this accelerating, with Ethereum continuing to be a foundational piece of the blockchain industry, and developers continuing to build on and iterate what Ethereum has done.”

However, Eskil Tsu, co-founder of GoPlus Web3 security solution, argues that improving security measures is essential if we want to see more adoption. He says, “The next 10 years will demand more robust protection and more exciting education to keep users safe as innovations like rollups and sharding drive new possibilities.”

This is pretty important, as hacking and cyberattacks are a rising issue within cryptocurrency. Since June 2009, nearly $19 billion has been stolen across 785 reported hacks. So it’s safe to say, with Ethereum’s growing popularity, security will definitely be a focus.