Ethereum White Paper Turns 11, Marking the Anniversary of Smart Contracts and DeFi

The first iteration of Ethereum's foundational technical document, the white paper, has turned 11 years old.

The first iteration of Ethereum’s foundational technical document, the white paper, has turned 11 years old.

The first iteration of the document, also called the “proto-white paper” was first shared by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin in November 2013, in an email titled ‘Introducing Ethereum: a generalized smart contract/DAC platform.’

This marks the first time the Ethereum white paper was shared, although Buterin made some minor changes, before releasing the first version on Ethereum’s website, called a “next-generation smart contract and decentralized application platform,” inspired by Satoshi Nakamoto’s development of the Bitcoin network in 2009.

Buterin’s innovations introduced the concept of self-executing, blockchain-based smart contracts, which laid the foundation for all the emerging decentralized finance (DeFi) applications such as yield-farming, decentralized lending, borrowing and staking.

The 11-year anniversary is another testament to the growing utility of DeFi, which is increasingly becoming a financial paradigm next to the banking system, according to James Wo, the founder and CEO of DFG. Wo told Cointelegraph:

Top protocol categories on Ethereum. Source: DefiLlama

Lending is the second-largest protocol category on Ethereum, worth a combined $32.8 billion in total value locked (TVL) across 460 protocols, according to DefiLlama data.

While smart contracts and DeFi are disintermediating the financial services sector, Ethereum introduced significant innovation for other industries as well.

The travel and tourism industry has also benefited from the world’s first smart contract platform, according to Pablo Castillo, CEO and chief technology officer of Chain4Travel, who told Cointelegraph:

Over the next 10 years, Ethereum will solidify its role as DeFi’s “foundational infrastructure layer,” but solving its current interoperability challenges will be crucial for its continued adoption, added Castillo.

Due to the siloed nature of blockchain networks, cross-chain interoperability is a significant technical challenge. This fragmentation is a growing user experience issue for crypto holders since bridging assets between layer-1 networks like Ethereum is costly and carries security risks.

During the first 10 years, Ethereum became the home for millions of smart contracts and thousands of decentralized applications (DApps).

Ethereum’s rapid adoption will likely accelerate in the next 10 years, especially among institutions, according to Alex Mizrahi, the co-founder and chief technology officer of the Chromia blockchain platform.

He told Cointelegraph:

However, facilitating the next wave of adoption will require more robust security measures, according to Eskil Tsu, co-founder of GoPlus Web3 security solution, who wrote:

Hack and cyberattacks are a growing concern in the crypto space. Crypto hackers stole nearly $19 billion across 785 reported hacks, in the 13 years since June 2019, according to a Crystal Intelligence report shared with Cointelegraph.