The global blockchain industry is celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the Ethereum network’s initial coin offering (ICO).
Ethereum started gaining traction in 2014 when co-founder Vitalik Buterin mentioned the project at a Bitcoin conference in Miami.
On July 22, Ethereum launched its ICO, selling over $18 million worth of Ether (ETH) paid for in Bitcoin (BTC).
Ethereum has come a long way since its inception. Given the network’s success, some members of the Web3 community are hosting celebrations in honor of Ethereum.
Ethereum’s decade celebration in Tokyo
Cy Li, director of EDCON and De University of Ethereum — a nonprofit organization dedicated to blockchain education — told Cointelegraph that Ethereum’s first decade will be celebrated at EDCON 2024. Li mentioned that the event will take place from July 24–30 in Tokyo, Japan.
Li said Ethereum co-founders Joe Lubin and Buterin, along with the original ICO participants and Ethereum Foundation core team members, will speak during the event.
“We’ll bridge Ethereum’s revolutionary past with its ambitious future, exploring key themes like interoperability, open source development, and community building,” Li said.
Li added that Tokyo is an ideal place to host an Ethereum event, noting that the region has become a “rising blockchain hub.” This appears to be the case, especially as Japan’s regulatory environment for crypto continues to evolve.
In addition to the region’s crypto-friendly regulations, the University of Tokyo announced two years ago that it would offer courses in the metaverse.
“By celebrating in Tokyo, we’re aiming to position Ethereum at the forefront of a culture that embraces both heritage and cutting-edge technology, setting the stage for the next wave of blockchain adoption,” Li said.
Ethereum celebrations in San Francisco
Ken Fromm, managing drector of BuildETH, told Cointelegraph that Ethereum companies based in San Francisco will host a birthday party to honor the Ethereum ICO.
“BuildETH, CookBook, Dabl Club, SKALE Network, Quantstamp, DoraHacks and others will be celebrating this milestone in San Francisco on July 22,” Fromm said.
According to Fromm, San Francisco is an appropriate location to celebrate the Ethereum ICO anniversary. “It’s an open and social city and a favorite of tech innovators and pirates,” he remarked.
Indeed, San Francisco remains one of the original crypto hotspots. Even after a number of Web3 developers left the Bay Area following the COVID-19 pandemic, the region remains home to several blockchain companies.
Noelle Becker Moreno, chief marketing officer of blockchain development firm Edge & Node, told Cointelegraph that Edge & Node’s House of Web3 in San Francisco will also be hosting a happy hour in collaboration with The Graph and Crypto Mondays.
“This event aims to bring together the vibrant Web3 community for an evening of celebration and reflection on the milestones achieved since the Ethereum ICO,” she said.
Becker Moreno believes it’s important to celebrate the Ethereum ICO anniversary since the ETH public sale marks a pivotal moment for the Web3 community:
“We’re excited [...] to bring San Francisco’s Web3 community together to toast to Ethereum’s success, along with all those dedicated to the innovations that will drive us forward.”
Hopes for Ethereum moving forward
While it’s notable that Ethereum has matured since the project’s ICO 10 years ago, industry participants hope to see continued growth.
Fromm remarked that he wants to see improved account access and control for individuals and organizations using the network.
“I love the simple aspect of signing a transaction with a private key, but this simplicity carries with it vulnerabilities such that even the most experienced people are reluctant to use the same account across different apps and protocols,” Fromm said.
Fromm further commented that better trust protocols around Ethereum are still needed. “By this, I mean better ways to detect who to trust or what app or protocol to trust,” he said.
In addition, Buterin recently stated that he believes artificial intelligence will be able to detect bugs within Ethereum-based code, remarking that this is currently one of Ethereum’s biggest technical risks.