Ethereum at Five

In 2020, a cadre of DeFi upstarts including the Maker Foundation, Compound Labs, 0x, dYdX and Wyre has become the best justification for the persistence of the world’s second-largest blockchain.

“A lot of money was made on random equities on electronic exchanges. They were people who were more technical than financial.” Now, Ethereum’s surging DeFi sector could force a similar migration.

Beyond leading to a contentious hard fork and the creation of Ethereum Classic, The DAO hack laid bare core issues relating to blockchain development: “Is code law or do these systems serve human purposes?”

“Compared to where we’re going next, we’ve still just scratched the surface of what this technology will do.”

What started as a concept is now an economy of interlinked applications with more than $4 billion in value invested. But it’s more than just money. DeFi has changed the way people think about Ethereum itself and given rise to new narratives and memes.

“No matter what enterprise platforms look like in 15 years, there will be pieces that evolved from ‘industry coopetition’ conversations that never would have happened otherwise.”

Five years ago, the first general-purpose blockchain went live on its mainnet. Here are five charts for understanding Ethereum's evolution.