Vitalik Buterin’s current thoughts on Ethereum

Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin was surprised by the emergence of NFTs

Scams have pervaded the NFT space and made critics question their legitimacy, but proponents believe their use cases could one day extend to real estate and credit scores.

Vitalik Buterin explains ethereum in 30 minutes

Every year, ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin explains what his crypto platform is in a 30-minute presentation at the Ethereum Foundation’s event, Devcon. Buterin’s explanation goes deeper than a simple 101 explanation. To learn more about the current state of ethereum, what’s changed recently, and what Buterin expects down the road, watch this video.

Inside Vitalik Buterin’s trip to Russia

A Vice reporter heads to Russia, where he documents Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin’s time there. Buterin, then 23, attends events in the country to raise awareness about Ethereum and its potential to pave the way for a new financial future. At the same time, Vice notes that Russia’s interest in crypto could stem from its potential to allow the country to evade international sanctions. Watch the full video here.

Ethereum is a blockchain-powered platform for building decentralized software and apps

Among crypto enthusiasts, ethereum is known for the cryptocurrency it uses to facilitate transactions: ether, or ETH. It's often compared to an app store. The underpinnings of ethereum's blockchain include dApps, which operate using automated scripts called "smart contracts."

Top Ethereum dApps

Thousands of decentralized apps (dApps) run on Ethereum, including marketplaces, financial platforms, and social networks. Top apps include Uniswap, a decentralized exchange for buying and selling cryptocurrency, and OpenSea, the biggest marketplace for buying and selling non-fungible tokens (NFTs). New apps are built on Ethereum all the time, facilitating billions of dollars worth of transactions. Explore the biggest ones here.

A letter to Ethereum’s community from an early builder

Fuel Network CEO Nick Dodson writes about his experience as an early app builder on the Ethereum blockchain. He talks about why he perceives Ethereum as being different from rival blockchains like Solana, espousing the ethos and “spirit” of the Ethereum network and community. At the same time, he lays out some hopes he has for the future of Ethereum in a telling peek into an Ethereum insider’s brain. Read the letter here.

Prediction market Polymarket's CEO dropped out of New York University

Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan started building Polymarket when he was 21. Polymarket has been backed by billionaire investors such as Peter Thiel and Vitalik Buterin.

The Ethereum Foundation’s latest report

The Ethereum Foundation is a nonprofit organization supporting Ethereum in several ways. These include providing grants to developers who want to build on the blockchain, and hosting events promoting crypto’s future, like Devcon. This annual report grants a peek into the nonprofit’s role in Ethereum's operations and the values it seeks to support through its work. The nonprofit’s frontline involvement is another differentiating factor between Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies.

Ethereum’s biggest risks and top criticisms

As it evolves, critics say Ethereum’s constant changes make the platform overly complex and fundamentally less secure. They also say the Ethereum Foundation and a handful of developers wield too much control over the crypto platform, and that gas fees are prohibitively expensive. Some criticisms are addressed in Ethereum’s roadmap, but others strike at the crypto platform’s core. Go deeper on why here.

Bitcoin and ethereum are decentralized cryptocurrencies with different functions

Bitcoin, launched in 2009, is primarily a digital currency and store of value with a fixed supply. Ethereum, introduced in 2015, enables smart contracts and decentralized apps, offering more flexibility.

Cofounder Gavin Wood said Ethereum is going nowhere

Ethereum’s other cofounder, and the person known for coining the term “Web3,” Gavin Wood, ended his direct involvement with Ethereum in 2016. After that, he founded Polkadot with the aim of resolving the issues he saw with Ethereum. In this podcast, Wood says he thinks Ethereum is a financial success but that its progress has stalled. He also talks about hopes he had for the platform that have yet to be realized.

Why blockchain applications are worth investing and building

Chris Dixon is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. In this hourlong podcast episode, Dixon shares his overall thesis for investing in the cryptocurrency space, the opportunities and limitations of blockchain applications, and why this is the most interesting area for investing and building over the next 10 years.

The blockchain offers tantalizing possibilities for future use

Think of blockchains as a running list of information, where new details are added to the running chain as discrete "blocks." With crypto, the information contained within each block could be virtually anything, providing flexibility for uses in commerce, legal filings, healthcare records, and more.

Hear what Michael Burry thinks about the possibility of an AI bubble

Since his success shorting subprime mortgage-backed securities in 2008, Burry's positions have often become influential, sparking conversations on platforms like X. In 2025, Burry drew attention for betting against Nvidia and Palantir for being overvalued companies.

The role stories play in mass economic trends like bitcoin, crashes

Economics is dominated by numbers, but stories play a huge role in the emotional shifts seen within macroeconomic trends. For example, bitcoin is not just a cost-benefit winner, but a compelling tale of decentralization and independence. This is a 20-minute summary of Nobel prize-winning economist Robert Shiller's "Narrative Economics."

How to stake Ethereum

Ethereum switched to a proof-of-stake method for validating transactions in recent years, and now investors can stake 32 ether to participate and earn rewards. Several ways to get involved in ether staking exist, with varying levels of income, difficulty, and impact. Some allow users to stake less than 32 ether by pooling funds with other users, while others require less advanced hardware. Read about the different staking methods here.

Y Combinator cofounder Paul Graham keeps a public archive of his insightful essays

In addition to cofounding Y Combinator and other companies before it, Paul Graham is a prolific writer and artist. He chronicled many of his thoughts while building Y Combinator in a series of dozens of candid essays, all of which you can read in an online archive.

Modern prediction markets started in Iowa in 1988

The University of Iowa's Iowa Electronic Markets were introduced during the 1988 US presidential election. The beginning of their origin story almost sounds like a joke: Three economists walked into a bar.

Coinbase and the metaverse

In this essay, Coinbase founders Brian Armstrong and Alex Reeve talk about the importance of the metaverse, the components of it, and the role Coinbase plays.

How prediction markets differ from sportsbooks matters for regulation

There are a number of differences and similarities between sportsbooks and prediction markets, despite both allowing people to bet on outcomes for sports-related events. For instance, prediction markets typically earn revenue through transaction fees rather than taking directional exposure to outcomes.

Donald Trump's Truth Social social media platform is launching a prediction market

Named "Truth Predict," the cryptocurrency-based prediction market will allow users of the Truth Social social media platform to place crypto bets on the outcome of certain events (think: sports games, the economy, and political races). Truth Social is primarily owned by President Donald Trump and his family.

Nonstop posting by Elon Musk provides calculated political and brand messaging

For a week in August 2024, Musk posted 650 times, including reactions to far-right influencers; promotion of his AI tool, Grok; and support for controversial political takes. He livestreamed himself playing Diablo IV for hours during that same week.

A creator economy timeline

Long before anyone memorized a TikTok dance, the creator economy began with regular people blogging about their personal lives. Eventually, it snowballed into the creator economy we know today. The Washington Post created an interactive timeline to help visualize how the creator economy got from point A to point B.

Mark Zuckerberg views Meta as a technology company—not a social media company

Despite Meta's core products being social media apps, Zuckerberg is adamant that Meta is a technology company that has built social media apps, but can build and is comfortable building other technologies—like AI-integrated glasses and virtual reality labs.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

More than $3.5B has been invested through AngelList

AngelList was created to connect startups and angel investors. It’s evolved since its 2010 founding and has been used by companies like Uber and OpenSea.

Watch this video that uses Lego bricks to explain how venture capital works.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

A vending machine run with Anthropic's AI went out of business after it was convinced to give away items for free and sell a video game console.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

Read a deep dive on the 'all-purpose healing' peptide BPC-157.

Learn how to read a prospectus, the juicy document that any company must file with the SEC before going public.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

Researchers believe the brain consolidates memories, processes emotions, and plans for the future during dream states

Explore the known asteroids, comets, and spacecraft involved in asteroid studies within our solar system with 'Eyes on Asteroids,' a 3D visualization from NASA.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

Jimmy Carter signed a 1978 bill that legalized home brewing, a move credited with kick-starting the craft beer industry.

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

The rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson centered on federalism—the question of how much power the federal government should hold relative to the states.