Vitalik Buterin Decided To 'Leave University For Good,' But Confirmation That It Was A Good Idea Only Came When He Experienced This 'Social Proof'

Core Insights - Vitalik Buterin's decision to leave college was not a planned move but a reaction to circumstances he faced at the time [1][4] - His early involvement in the cryptocurrency space included a desire to intern at Ripple, but visa issues led him to work on Bitcoin Magazine instead [2] - The pivotal moment for Buterin came during the Bitcoin Miami Conference in January 2014, where he realized he would not return to university after presenting Ethereum [3] Company Development - Ethereum was developed as an alternative to Bitcoin, focusing on broader use cases in decentralized finance, and was officially launched in 2015 [5] - As of now, Ethereum is the largest blockchain for decentralized finance, with over $54 billion in total value locked [6] - The native token of Ethereum, ETH, is currently the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization [6]