Dima Buterin is the co-founder of Ethereum, one of the most powerful cryptocurrencies in existence. He explains how he thinks cryptocurrencies will shape society and what role they can play in bringing real financial freedom to people around the world.
Vitalik Buterin is the creator of Ethereum, a platform on which cryptocurrencies are built. In this interview, he talks about his new projects and how they will help create a more efficient world. Read more in detail here: vitalik buterin new projects.
This is the second half of an in-depth interview with Dmitry Buterin, in which he discusses his relationship with Vitalik and his experiences as a parent. Click here to read Part 1, which details his own remarkable life story.
Dmitry Buterin remembers his son Vitalik showing him the Ethereum white paper at their Toronto home in 2013.
In his distinctive accent, the Chechyna-born Toronto resident adds, “Hey Dad, I was working on this item, are you interested to look at it?” Vitalik had dropped out of university a year previously to explore the globe, and he’d finished the first draft within a month after returning home.
Despite the fact that Dmitry publicly introduced his kid to Bitcoin two years before, he acknowledges that many of the intricacies passed him by. However, he saw the bigger picture.
“One of his abilities is that he can take something really difficult and convey it extremely clearly,” he adds.
“So, even though I had just a rudimentary understanding of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies before reading this article, I was like, ‘wow, this makes a lot of sense to me.’ As a result, I was extremely ecstatic.”
Satoshi Nakamoto purposefully kept the Bitcoin network’s transaction complexity low, and Vitalik realized that if he designed an evolution of Bitcoin in a Turing complete programming language, it could potentially offer every conceivable digital service via the blockchain, from the stock market to the creation of decentralized cooperatives. Bitcoin’s inception was a “big leap,” according to Dmtiry, and the next jump could only be constructed on top of it.
“It really struck a chord with me as a pretty basic parallel, right?” “Because I saw the internet evolve, it began with static HTML webpages, and it was all fascinating, but extremely limiting,” he explains.
“However, JavaScript appeared on the scene, followed by all other programming languages, and everything changed.” So it was evident to me that Ethereum represented the same scale of change as moving from static, basic programming to Turing full scripting, and then the sky was the limit.”
“And sure, it’s really difficult and hazardous, and there are security concerns and such,” he continues. You, on the other hand, are capable of anything.”
Early on, Vitalik was fascinated with Lego block chains. (Supplied)
As a public personality, Vitalik struggled.
Although Vitalik possessed the foresight that resulted in a cryptocurrency worth half a trillion dollars, articulating the idea and forming a coalition of like-minded individuals to help build it required him to become a public figure, which was not his natural function. Dmitry recalls, “That was really extremely tough for him.”
“I could see it, and he suffered, particularly in the first couple of years, since he is a guy with a really gentle and sensitive temperament — well-intentioned.” “Oh, now I’m trying to accomplish something, and why are all these people constructing these websites mocking me?” he says.
However, he says that the hurdles aided Vitalik’s emotional intelligence development.
“Thanks to all of his public speaking and interactions with so many people, as well as all of his traveling, the world now has a much better understanding of the Vitalik that I and his family know: This very kind, sensitive, and fun guy versus just some smart guy with a lot of smart ideas talking about blockchain and stuff.”
Dmitry Buterin and his son Vitalik have a wonderful bond.
Returning to the beginning
Dmitry, now a successful businessman who semi-retired in 2017 after the SaaS company he started, Wild Apricot, was sold, says it was clear from the start that Vitalik had something special about him. Dmitry, who has a philosophical bent, would undoubtedly add that every kid is unique and exceptional, but Vitalik was in a class by himself.
His birth in 1994 had come as a pleasant surprise. As the former Soviet Union split apart, Dmitry was a 21-year-old student living in Kolomna, Russia, with Vitalik’s mother, Natalia Amelineas. Vitalik started reading “quite a distance before that,” according to Dmitry, who was a brilliant boy who had learnt to read by the age of three and a half.
Great talents, however, come with their own set of problems, and Vitalik needed longer than normal to get used to speaking.
Dmitry adds, “It was sort of evident that he had some extremely amazing potential.”
“However, every youngster with a highly strong brain has a variety of additional issues, such as nervous tics and other such issues.” So there are a lot of issues to deal with, and their communication is unique.”
Dmitry, his new girlfriend Maia, and his previous wife Natalia all migrated to Canada when Vitalik was six years old in quest of a better life.
Vitalik found himself in odd and unfamiliar surroundings when he moved to the other side of the world. Vitalik had been largely reared by Natalia and Dmitry, as well as her parents, up to that point.
“They were quite helpful, however they insisted on not sending him to daycare.” As a result, when he came in Canada, he had to go to daycare and learn a new language. As a result, he had to make a significant and often unpleasant change.”
This is so strange, cringy, and goofy, yet it’s also so gorgeous! https://t.co/foJ4qHbFDc
November 29, 2021 — Dima Butrin (@BlockGeekDima)
Success in a hurry
Vitalik’s aptitude was recognized early on, and by third grade, he’d been put in a gifted program where he could pursue his interests in mathematics, programming, and economics. Buterin was able to mentally add three digit numbers “ten times” quicker than anybody else. By the fifth or sixth grade, he was being referred to be a math prodigy.
“Which is crap,” Dmitry points out, referring to a key Wired piece from 2014 that characterized him as an autistic wunderkind who had learned to speak fluent Mandarin in only a few months. “It took a long time.” Vitalik was regarded at the time by co-founder Joseph Lubin (later of ConsenSys fame) as “a smart extraterrestrial who had landed on our planet to impart the holy gift of decentralization.”
Dmitry claims that Vitalik, like other extremely bright individuals, sees the world in a different manner than the typical person, which influences how they interact and socialize.
“Your mind is lot better at constructing models of everything and anticipating various things when you’re clever,” he explains. “And that works well in a variety of situations.” However, it does not function well with humans:”
“You’ve gotten too dependent on your reasoning mind and not nearly enough on your feeling mind. Because human emotions are far more complicated than any analytical model you can fathom, your thinking mind, no matter how strong, will make mistakes.”
Despite this, he claims that when Vitalik began attending Abelard School, a private high school, he began to break out of his shell.
He recalls, “I believe he truly developed when he got into high school.” “He went to a small private school that had a significant influence on him; he really opened up.”
However, the Vitalik we know today was created entirely online. On Wikipedia, he is described as a Russian-Canadian, yet he grew up immersed in online culture.
“He learnt how to interact with people online and develop friendships and stuff like that,” he explains. “And that’s when he got into the entire cryptocurrency and Bitcoin thing.”
Dmitry explains, “He really formed a lot of ties online with other aficionados.” “And that’s another another way we employ social skills, although in a completely different manner than in face-to-face situations.”
Dmitry and Vitalik are playing chess (Source: Twitter)
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency.
Dmitry is hesitant to accept credit for his son’s achievements, although he did play a crucial part in his son’s success by exposing him to Bitcoin. He attempted and failed to engage his kid in hacking, which he defines as “how do you take a sophisticated system and make it do something it wasn’t supposed to do.”
When Dmitry became interested in anything, he tried to pass it on to Vitlaik as part of the father-son relationship.
“Vitalik also has an inquisitive mind. So, for the most of my life, particularly as he became older, I’ve simply tried to give him a variety of intriguing stuff and see what sticks.”
Dmitry first learnt about Bitcoin in 2011 while listening to a cybersecurity webcast.
“I’m thinking, wow, yeah, this seems like a very cool technology with some potentially huge consequences.” But I can’t claim that I had a clear understanding of the magnitude of the repercussions at the time,” he adds.
Dmitry has always been captivated by technology, and he feeds his wide variety of interests — from AI and futurism to libertarianism and spiritualism — via extensive reading.
Ray Kurzweil, a scientist and inventor who “authored a number of books on the advancement of technology and made a bunch of really positive prophecies about the future,” was a formative influence.
“In my early twenties, he was one of my main influencers. When I finished reading his novels, I handed them to Vitalik as well. I just got in contact with him via a mutual acquaintance, and he gave me several of his books, which I read with Vitlaik 15 to 20 years ago. It was lovely that he gave me autographed copies.”
Dmitry Buterin is a witty and wise individual.
Dmitry admits that when it comes to hacking, he was unable to pique Vitalik’s attention since other things were more intriguing. He sent him copies of the Hacker Quarterly ‘2600’ Magazine, as well as books by Kevin Mitnick, the renowned convicted hacker who spent two years on the run from the FBI in the 1990s.
“He wasn’t very interested in hacking as such, but encryption struck a chord with him.” He also studied a lot of books on cryptography and the mathematics underlying it. As a result, when I informed him about Bitcoin, it was a highly fruitful thing for his mind to chew on.”
While his 17-year-old son originally disregarded the idea of a currency with no inherent value dooming it to fail, he reconsidered after ending his World of Warcraft addiction and needing something to do with his time.
He couldn’t afford to acquire or mine Bitcoin as a destitute student, so he started producing pieces for a blog for 5 BTC every article. This led to a position as the chief writer for Bitcoin Magazine, which he balanced with five advanced classes at the University of Waterloo and part-time employment as a research assistant for a cryptographer.
He covered a Bitcoin conference in San Jose, California, in May 2013, as a journalist, when the Winklevoss Twins and others spoke up this new digital revolution as being as big as the internet’s creation. Excited by the possibilities, he decided to seize the moment and drop out of college at the conclusion of the semester to pursue it full-time.
Shortly after moving to Toronto, Vitalik, Dmitry, and Natalia (Supplied).
I’m dropping out, Dad.
Dmitry remembers Vitalik’s visit to inform him of the plan.
“I do recall that day when he returned from university. Actually, his mother was visiting us, so when he came in, all three of us, me, Maia, and Natalia, were there. “And then he said, ‘Hey, guys, I’m thinking about dropping out,’” he adds.
“It was also really intriguing.” We all had the same reaction: we backed him because we all realized he’s a brilliant, lovely young adult who will be OK if he drops out.”
“So he dropped out and went on a round-the-world adventure, becoming engaged in a variety of activities.”
In “1995 or 1996,” Dmitry met Vitalik’s stepmother Maia in Russia. The couple married in 2004 but divorced a few years later. He claims she was instrumental in Vitalik’s upbringing.
“Maia had a great effect on Vitlaik because he grew up largely with the two of us and then he was seeing his mom on a regular basis whenever she was able to come Toronto,” he recalls, adding that she subsequently relocated close by, so they saw one other often.
It was almost as though Vitalik had three parents, Dmitry says.
“It’s really wonderful, in general.” I believe it was a couple of years back when Vitalik was there for some kind of family meal. He stepped up and expressed his gratitude for the many wonderful people in his life, saying, “I have my mother and I have you, Maia,” I don’t recall the exact words he used. But, you know, he was a true and honest person.”
Learn more about Dmitry, the co-founder of Ethereum inventor Vitalik Buterin.
Dmitry is a co-founder of Vitalik Buterin, the developer of Ethereum.
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Blockchain is a technology that has been around for over 10 years, but it’s only recently that the world has become interested in its potential. One of the most notable people to take an interest in blockchain is cryptocurrency investor and entrepreneur Dmitry Buterin, who recently sat down with Cointelegraph Magazine to discuss his thoughts on blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Reference: blockchain news.
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