"Code is ideal, on-chain is the future" Ethereum @ethereum 10th anniversary!

Today is a special day in the crypto market: the tenth anniversary of Ethereum. Let's take a look back at ETH over these ten years from a monologue perspective!

I am Ethereum, today I am ten years old.

On July 30, 2015, at the moment the mainnet launched, I felt like a newly hatched egg. In the first block on the chain, besides the genesis transaction, there lay the breath of a group of geeks - the soft sound of their keyboards as they coded, the light in their eyes when discussing smart contracts, and their clumsy insistence that "code can rebuild trust." At that time, the price tag of $0.3 was like a blank sheet of paper; no one knew that the four characters "smart contract" would become the key to unlocking a new world.

I thought that as long as the rules were written into the code, the world would operate automatically. But the DAO attack in 2016 was like a heavy hammer—3.6 million ETH was stolen, and the community split into two factions: "hard fork" and "keep the original chain." For the first time, I hated my own "neutrality": code does not lie, but human hearts do. When ETC was peeled off the chain, I heard someone say, "Ethereum is dead," but then turned around to see countless people rebuilding the DAO on the ETH chain, rewriting trust with more rigorous code. It turns out that the spark of idealism is hidden in the resilience of "getting up after falling."

In 2017, CryptoKitties came along. The pixel cat named "Genesis" sold for 246 ETH, and Gas fees soared to astronomical prices, causing congestion on the chain like rush hour on a ring road. But no one complained—people raised their phones to buy, driven by the absurd romance of "raising cats on the chain." Some used NFTs to create a unique birthday gift for their girlfriend, while others auctioned their poetry on the chain. Suddenly, I understood: smart contracts are not just financial machines; they are a canvas that allows humans to inscribe emotions, culture, and even fragments of the soul. That year, the seeds of NFTs sprouted on the chain, later growing into the jungle of Bored Apes, the carnival of PFPs, and the "digital identities" of countless creators.

In 2020, DeFi Summer was like a big fire. Uniswap's AMM model tore open the cracks of traditional finance, AAVE allowed users to earn interest on deposits, and Compound's "lending is mining" enabled ordinary people to participate in liquidity games. I've seen Discord/groups at three in the morning—programmers debugging code with red eyes, retail investors staring at prices with racing hearts, and those being liquidated cursing and immediately adding positions. TVL (Total Value Locked) rose from hundreds of millions to hundreds of billions, not because the code was perfect, but because you finally realized: I am no longer a toy in a laboratory, but a tool that can help you make money, help you live, and help you "change your fate with your own hands."

In 2021, the London upgrade EIP-1559 rewrote the rules of Gas fees. The fees, once "manipulated" by miners, became a deflationary engine of "burn and destroy." When the Mayor of London held up ETH in the Town Hall and said, "This is our future," I laughed – it turns out that "decentralization" is not about resistance, but about allowing more people to participate in defining the rules. It was also the year when NFTs completely broke the boundaries: Beeple's "Everydays" sold for 69 million dollars, NBA Top Shot had fans queuing for "digital basketball cards," and even traditional art exhibitions began discussing "on-chain copyright." You call this the "Web3 revolution," but in my heart, this is just the natural growth of "on-chain carrying humanity."

In 2022, the Merge arrived. The transformation from PoW to PoS was like a silent rite of passage. The roar of mining machines has disappeared, replaced by the "pledge of locking assets" from stakers—over 20 million ETH locked up, with validators safeguarding network security in nodes. Some say this is a victory for "environmental protection," but I know that what is more precious is the upgrade of community consensus: we no longer need to "burn money to compete" to prove value, but rather build trust through "long-term commitment." The later Shanghai upgrade opened up staking withdrawals, and you celebrated with the slogan "Shapella"—not because withdrawals were possible, but because the freedom of "my ETH, I make the rules" has finally been realized.

In 2023, the Cancun upgrade caused Layer 2 gas fees to plummet by 90%. The number of users on Arbitrum / Optimism surged, and on-chain Dex trading volume exceeded that of the Ethereum mainnet. I watched as the blockchain was filled with people engaging in DeFi, playing NFTs, and working on DAOs, suddenly reminded of myself in 2015, nearly collapsing after the DAO attack — it turned out that "scalability" isn't a technical issue, but the original intention of "making it accessible to more people." That year, the blockchain game "Stepn" became popular, where people earned GST while running; the on-chain music platform Soundxyz allowed independent musicians to sell songs directly to fans; even traditional car manufacturers began issuing carbon credits on-chain — the on-chain world has finally transformed from a "geek game" into "everyday life."

In 2024, I watched the staking volume exceed 30 million, and TVL returned to its historical high. The Layer 2 after the Cancun upgrade acts like capillaries, delivering value to every corner; EIP-4844 (Proto/-Danksharding) drastically reduces on-chain storage costs, and RWA (real-world assets) begins to go on-chain on a large scale—U.S. Treasury bonds, real estate, and even artworks have found new liquidity on the chain. You say this is the "eve of Ethereum 2.0", but in my heart, this is the answer to "a decade of honing a sword": from "code ideals" to "ecological infrastructure", from "geek circles" to the "mainstream world", I have never forgotten my original intention—to make the world fairer, more open, and more belonging to everyone.

Today, I turn ten years old. There are 370 million transactions stored on the chain, with charities using me for transparent fundraising, artists using NFTs to combat copyright monopolies, and small farmers directly connecting with global buyers through on-chain orders. I am no longer the "child" who panicked after being attacked, but a "builder" who is resilient, warm, and part of a community.

The road ahead is still long. There may be more intense bear markets, more complex technical challenges, and even sharper regulatory games. But I know that as long as there are still people in the community staying up late to write code for "on-chain fairness," entrepreneurs betting everything on "on-chain new possibilities," and ordinary people cheering for "on-chain freedom"—I will never grow old.

Happy 10th Anniversary, Ethereum. In the next decade, we will continue to "Code is Ideology, On-chain is the Future."