Vitalik Buterin wrote the Ethereum whitepaper at 19 years old.
Let that sink in.
While most of us were figuring out college or chasing clout, this kid was designing a world computer that would go on to secure hundreds of billions in value.
And what did he get in return?
2014-2016: "Ethereum is a scam." "It'll never work." "Bitcoin is the only real crypto."
2016: The DAO hack. $60M stolen. The entire project nearly died. Media declared Ethereum dead. He had to make impossible decisions that split the community.
2017-2018: ICO boom turned bust. Everyone blamed Ethereum. "ETH is going to zero." Projects that built garbage on his platform made him the scapegoat.
2019-2020: The "ETH killer" era. Every new L1 was supposed to replace Ethereum. Solana. Cardano. EOS. The narrative was relentless: "ETH can't scale. ETH is too slow. ETH is finished."
2021: Gas fees through the roof. "Ethereum is unusable." "Only for the rich." More FUD. More hate.
2022: The Merge. Years of work. Everyone said it would fail. "ETH will crash." "The chain will break." "It's too risky."
It didn't fail. It was one of the most successful upgrades in crypto history. Flawless.
2023-2026: Now it's "EF is incompetent." "Ethereum has no roadmap." "Leadership is failing." Same energy, different year.
Through all of this - every single cycle - Vitalik is still here.
No rage tweets.
No clapping back at critics.
No "I told you so" victory laps.
Just building. Researching. Writing. Thinking about the next 10 years while everyone else argues about the next 10 days.
This man donated hundreds of millions to charity. Gave away his SHIB airdrop to India COVID relief. Lives modestly while he could be living like a king.
He's been mass unfollowed. Called a scammer. Mocked for how he dresses, how he talks, how he thinks. CT loves to clown him when ETH is down and pretend they always believed when ETH is up.
Most people on this app can't handle a ratio.
Vitalik handled a decade of the entire crypto industry telling him his life's work was worthless - and kept building anyway.
That's not stubbornness. That's conviction.
The kind you can't fake. The kind you can't buy. The kind that builds things that actually last.
You don't have to mass $ETH.
You don't have to mass anything.
But you should respect the man who mass something real while the world told him he was wrong.
Decade of FUD. Still here. Still building.
Respect the builder.
Respect the vision.
Respect the man. 🫡
CT is asking why so many people have recently left the Ethereum Foundation. Is this a bad sign for Ethereum?
Absolutely not — it’s actually the opposite.
A lot of you may have missed or skimmed over one crucial line in the 38-page EF Mandate that came out in March 2026.
“Our goal is to reduce the Foundation’s relative influence over time.”
That one sentence explains everything. The Ethereum Foundation is intentionally shrinking — not because of any crisis, weakness, or failure, but because it’s part of a clear, long-planned strategy.
The end goal is simple: Ethereum must pass the “walkaway test.” The network should keep running, improving, and protecting itself even if the Foundation disappeared tomorrow. Only when the EF is no longer a central chokepoint can Ethereum become truly decentralized — just like Bitcoin.
Think about it. Whenever $ETH’s price drops, a lot of people immediately blame the Foundation. Many of you have probably wondered if Vitalik and the EF’s steady ETH sales are the main reason for the pressure, right?
As the Foundation’s influence fades step by step, Ethereum moves closer to its ideal form — a fully decentralized network with no single point of control. ETH will finally be seen as a true monetary asset on a credibly neutral platform, with no “throat to choke.” No more central target for criticism, regulation, or selling pressure.
This is not a weakness. This is Ethereum growing up.