On July 30th, the Ethereum The community came together to commemorate the significant milestone of Ethereum's fourth year since its launch.
Launched on that very same date back in 2014, Frontier marked Ethereum's debut as it transitioned from the Olympic testnet's 1,028,201st block to Ethereum's own genesis block.
This noteworthy inception paved the way for mining efforts to secure the network while developers embarked on groundbreaking work with Ethereum’s smart contracts and decentralized applications — some of which are now cornerstones in today’s crypto landscape.
https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin/status/1156223579945668613
“The Frontier phase was expected to galvanize early tech enthusiasts and app creators into forming communities and ecosystems,” noted Stephan Tual, who at the time held the position of Ethereum's chief communications officer. wrote presciently just days In precise terms, during the Frontier stage, pioneers akin to those in the American Frontier era were anticipated to discover immense opportunities yet also face considerable challenges.
This fourth anniversary coincides closely with the fifth anniversary of Ethereum's initial ether (ETH) pre-sale, which kicked off on July 22nd, 2014, a milestone block 8,252,752 has now secured a place in history.
Block #8252752 is the lucky number marking Ethereum's 4th birthday! ????
We did some quick math for fun.
When you do the math, averaging it all over four years, you get a block time of about 15.285 seconds – not bad at all!— ETHGasStation (@ETHGasStation) July 30, 2019
During the 42-day pre-sale boom, over 31,500 bitcoin transformed into more than 60 million ether, each trading at approximately $0.35.
From that pivotal sale onwards, Ethereum and its digital currency have cemented themselves as powerhouses in the cryptoconomy, and today the Ethereum developer community is the most robust in this domain.
Ethereum (ETH) currently boasts a towering market cap of $23.4 billion, with each unit trading around $209, though its value soared to a remarkable $1,431 during the peak of the crypto frenzy in January 2018.
Crash Course: Ethereum History 101
To grasp Ethereum’s rapid rise, we need to look back at its roots: in November 2013, Vitalik Buterin distributed a whitepaper introducing an all-encompassing smart contract computational platform, sharing it with a close circle of tech enthusiasts.
It didn't take long for this vision to materialize, as developer Gavin Wood made the inaugural commit to Ethereum's code base within a month of Buterin’s manifesto.
Buterin shared his concept with a wider audience at the January 2014 North American Bitcoin Conference, stirring excitement, and by summer, the ether pre-sale was underway.
Following the launch of the Olympic testnet in spring 2015, Frontier came live less than two months later, heralding Ethereum's genesis block and leading to the subsequent debut of Homestead in March the following year.
June 2016 was particularly tumultuous for Ethereum; a notorious breach targeting The DAO investment fund occurred, necessitating a blockchain fork to secure investments, culminating in the Ethereum versus Ethereum Classic (ETC) divide.
The subsequent year saw monumental events for Ethereum: the birth of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, an ICO explosion, and a bullish ether rally that later waned throughout 2018. Now, with burgeoning buy pressures and regulatory dynamics shifting, Ethereum's presence in the cryptoeconomy is more crucial than ever. pressed closer to the mainstream and big enterprises have taken notice .
Next Up: Serenity
Now, anticipation builds for Ethereum’s most radical transformation yet: the extensive Serenity upgrade.
This ambitious upgrade will transition Ethereum to a proof-of-stake model utilizing Casper FFG technology, with scaling enhancements from sharding and Plasma in its plans.
Last month, Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake suggested a tentative start date of January 3rd, 2020, for Serenity's 'Phase Zero,' ushering in a new era known as ETH 2.0 slated for early 2020. floated the possibility A key milestone to watch is the activation of the Beacon Chain's deposit contract for Phase Zero, potentially set to happen at Devcon 5 in Osaka, Japan, as previously proposed by Drake.
William M. Peaster is an expert writer and editor entrenched in Ethereum, Dai, and Bitcoin topics within the cryptospace. His work is featured in platforms like Blockonomi, Binance Academy, and Bitsonline. He's mastering smart contracts, DAOs, dApps, and the Lightning Network, and diving deep into Solidity. Find him on Telegram at @wmpeaster.
