Vitalik Buterin

A Russian-Canadian programmer and writer who co-founded Ethereum, the world's second-largest blockchain platform by market capitalisation. Buterin proposed Ethereum in a 2013 whitepaper as a platform for decentralised applications using smart contracts, launching the network in July 2015. He remains a highly influential figure in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, with his public statements and proposals frequently impacting market sentiment and development priorities across the blockchain industry.