The Mind Behind the "World Computer": Ethereum's Vitalik Buterin

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has been unassailable in his mission to build the "World Computer." Since piecing together a revolutionary white paper in 2013, the soft-spoken genius behind the Ethereum project and Ether cryptocurrency has been a steady advocate for the democratizing capacity of decentralized networks.

Although Buterin had been an active participant in the Bitcoin community since 2011, as a co-founder of Bitcoin Magazine, he is better known as the man responsible for the seminal Ethereum white paper.

As an active participant and contributor to numerous Bitcoin communities, Buterin frequently proposed building a more fluid version of the Bitcoin core network that would support the swift creation of decentralized apps without functionality-layering procedures.

The Ethereum project at times seemed to have lost its way, and both average observers and Ether advocates will likely agree that the development team is more focused on network upgrades and hard forks than stabilizing the value of the altcoin.

Recently, the network successfully implemented the Istanbul hard fork - the eighth to date - and the developers still intend for the network to shift to ETH 2.0, dubbed Serenity, in 2020.Buterin provides a steady handWhat sets Vitalik Buterin apart from some of his peers is his approach to decentralization and his desire to preserve democratic principles in the crypto space.

According to Buterin, the future of cryptocurrency is "Diverse and pluralist," and during times when the network's decentralization has come under question, Buterin has stepped in to espouse the value of ensuring that all perspectives are heard and the collective desire is acted upon.

Rather than obsessing over Etheruem's valuation in its Bitcoin and USD pairings, Buterin is deeply focused on pushing the network toward its transition to Ethereum 2.0.If implemented successfully, many in the sector believe the network upgrade will have a significant impact on the entire sector, including other networks like Tron, Cardano, EOS and Ontology - all of which claim to be superior to Ethereum.

Ethereum's status as the most popular smart contract platform underlies the significance of the upcoming Ethereum 2.0 upgrade.

According to Buterin, Ethereum 2.0 would stand as a serious competitor to other networks, and once fully implemented, transaction times could drop from minutes to approximately three seconds.

"Ethereum 1.0 is a couple of peoples' scrappy attempt to build the world computer; Ethereum 2.0 will actually be the world computer."