Bitcoin showed that a network could transfer value without a central operator. Ethereum asked a broader question: what if developers could also deploy programs that run on a shared blockchain? Ether (ETH) is the native coin that pays for transactions and helps secure the network. Ethereum is the platform; ETH is its asset.
Key milestones in the journey
2013–14: Vitalik Buterin proposes a programmable blockchain
Vitalik Buterin circulated the Ethereum whitepaper in late 2013. The idea was a general-purpose blockchain with smart contracts rather than a chain built around one payment function. Other co-founders and early contributors helped turn the proposal into a project. A 2014 crowdsale funded development, but participation in that sale should not be confused with the network launch.
2015: Frontier brings Ethereum online
The Ethereum mainnet launched on July 30, 2015, with its Frontier release. Developers could write contracts and users could pay gas in ETH to execute transactions. Gas is a fee for computing and storage, not an arbitrary charge by a wallet. This model opened the door to onchain exchanges, lending, tokens, NFTs and many experiments that would arrive later.
2016: The DAO exploit forces a difficult choice
The DAO, an early Ethereum-based investment vehicle, suffered an exploit. The community split over whether to change the chain’s history to recover funds. A hard fork produced the chain now called Ethereum; the unforked chain continued as Ethereum Classic. The episode exposed a lasting tension between rigid transaction finality and a community’s ability to coordinate extraordinary intervention.
2020–22: The Beacon Chain and the Merge
A separate proof-of-stake Beacon Chain began in December 2020. On September 15, 2022, the Merge joined Ethereum’s existing execution history to that proof-of-stake consensus. Mining ended on Ethereum. The change sharply reduced the network’s energy use, but it did not itself make mainnet transactions cheap; scaling through layer 2 networks remained a separate priority.
2023–25: Withdrawals, rollup data and further upgrades
Shapella enabled staked ETH withdrawals in April 2023. Dencun, activated in March 2024, added blobs that can lower data costs for many rollups. Pectra followed in May 2025 with another package of changes to accounts, staking and the network. These are successive upgrades, not fresh launches of ETH.
How Ethereum works today
A validator stakes ETH to participate in proof-of-stake and proposes or attests to blocks. A user submits a transaction, pays gas, and a contract can change state according to its code. Layer 2 networks batch activity and post data or proofs back to Ethereum under different designs. The security and withdrawal rules of a particular rollup still deserve inspection. ETH itself is not the same thing as every token created on Ethereum.
Where the story stands
Ethereum’s history is the story of a platform that kept changing while preserving a broad developer ecosystem. Smart contracts make applications composable, but they also create risks from faulty code, approvals and bridges. ETH pays gas on Ethereum; a wallet may show the same address on EVM-compatible chains such as Base, yet the assets on each chain remain separate.
What a new user should remember
For a newcomer, the important distinction is between Ethereum mainnet, the ETH asset, and layer 2 networks that settle to Ethereum. Verify the network as well as the address before sending. Our EVM address guide explains the wallet side.
Primary sources
This article is an educational history of the network, not investment advice.
