Ethereum Turns 10: The Milestones That Defined a Blockchain Giant

Ethereum Turns 10: Here’s Every Milestone You Should Know

Since its July 2015 launch, Ethereum has developed into the foundation of Web3, NFTs, and decentralized finance. The Ethereum mainnet has supported thousands of decentralized apps (DApps), fueled billions of transactions, and stimulated a flourishing international developer community in the last ten years.

Ethereum‘s history is replete with groundbreaking turning points, from the introduction of the DAO to the Merge and beyond, from its beginnings as a platform for programmable smart contracts to its current status as the most significant decentralized network globally. We examine the significant events that influenced Ethereum’s development and how it continues to determine the blockchain’s future as it marks its tenth anniversary in 2025.

Ethereum Whitepaper Release — November 2013

The first decentralized computation platform that can run smart contracts and decentralized apps (DApps), the Ethereum whitepaper, was published in November 2013 by Vitalik Buterin, one of the co-founders of Ethereum. It details a daring vision for a world computer. This document turned into the plan for the foundation of decentralized finance, Web3, and NFTs.

Ethereum ICO & Mainnet Launch — July 2014 to July 2015

Ethereum’s ICO raised over $18 million, making it the biggest ICO at the time and one of the most significant crowdfunding events in cryptocurrency history. At a mere $0.311 per token during the initial coin offering, investors were given ETH at a ratio of 1 BTC = 2,000 ETH. Its revolutionary adventure began when the Ethereum mainnet was formally released on July 30, 2015, a year later.

The DAO Hack & Ethereum/Ethereum Classic Fork — June to July 2016

When The DAO, a trailblazing decentralized venture capital fund, was breached and millions of ETH were stolen, the emergence of DAOs took an unexpected turn. In the community, this sparked a contentious discussion. To undo the hack, one side pushed for a chain split. The other refused to change blockchain history and maintained the idea that “code is law.” In the end, Ethereum was divided into Ethereum Classic (ETC) and Ethereum (ETH).

Byzantium Hardfork — October 2017

Zero-knowledge proofs, or zk-SNARKs, were added to Ethereum by the Byzantium hardfork, facilitating private transactions and enhancing data efficiency. This made it possible to design DApps that are more scalable and privacy-focused.

Difficulty Bomb Delays — September 2015 to June 2022

A difficulty bomb was a component of Ethereum’s proof-of-work (PoW) model that was intended to gradually render mining unprofitable in order to promote a switch to proof-of-stake (PoS). In order to give themselves more time for network upgrades, developers repeatedly delayed the bomb through hardforks over the years.

Constantinople Hardfork — February 2019

Inflation was decreased by the Constantinople update, which decreased the ETH block reward from 3 ETH to 2 ETH. Additionally, it included a number of significant Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), including EIP-1283 for lower gas prices and EIP-1052 for quicker smart contract verification. Ethereum became more developer-friendly and cost-effective as a result.

London Hardfork & EIP-1559 — August 2021

With EIP-1559, the London upgrade completely changed Ethereum’s fee structure by substituting a base charge + priority tip model for the previous auction mechanism. Now that the basic fee is burned after every transaction, the quantity of ETH is under deflationary pressure, and transaction predictability is increased.

The Merge — September 2022

At block 15,537,393, Ethereum finished The Merge, moving from PoW to PoS on September 15, 2022. This momentous change ended ETH mining and reduced Ethereum’s energy consumption by more than 99% by merging the mainnet (execution layer) with the Beacon Chain staking network.

Cancun-Deneb (Dencun) Hardfork — March 2024

Ethereum’s consensus layer (Deneb) and execution layer (Cancun) underwent independent modifications as part of the Dencun update. The feature that was most anticipated was EIP-4844 (Proto-Danksharding), which introduced “blobs,” a new transaction type designed to lower rollup costs and prepare the way for complete Ethereum sharding.

Prague-Electra (Pectra) Hardfork — July 2025

Pectra introduced one of the most comprehensive post-Merge enhancements when it went live on May 7, 2025. It improved smart contract functionality for externally owned accounts (EOAs), increased the maximum validator balance to 2,048 ETH, and further streamlined Layer-2 connections. This update increased Ethereum’s on-chain capability while obfuscating the distinction between smart contracts and standard wallets.

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