A Milestone in Crypto History: Ethereum Celebrates 10 Years in Zug

BLOCKCHAIN

A Milestone in Crypto History: Ethereum Celebrates 10 Years in Zug

Story by Natalia Spivak

Zug, Switzerland – July 30, 2025 – Ethereum, the pioneering blockchain platform that revolutionized decentralized applications and smart contracts, marked its 10th anniversary in the heart of Crypto Valley. The celebration took place at SHED, Zug’s iconic venue, bringing together Web3 pioneers, developers, and enthusiasts to reflect on a decade of innovation.

The event was co-hosted by the AKASHA Foundation and Bitcoin Suisse, with partnerships from ETHGlobal, Maerki Baumann & Co., Inacta Ventures, and ISP Group. Ecosystem partners included ArtMeta, Blockchain Bundesverband, Canton of Zug, Crypto Valley Association, Ethereum Ecosystem Fund, POAP, STORM Partners, Swiss Blockchain Federation, Trust Square, and Home of Blockchain, all contributing to the event’s success.

A highlight of the evening was the announcement of ETHERLAKEN, a groundbreaking initiative poised to enhance Ethereum’s scalability and user experience, a significant milestone in Ethereum’s ongoing evolution.

A standout moment was the special address by Mihai Alisie, co-founder of Ethereum and the AKASHA Foundation. In an exclusive interview, Alisie shared insights into Ethereum’s inception, its journey over the past decade, and the vision for its future.

Mihai, what message would you like to share with Ethereum users, builders, and holders around the world who couldn’t be in Zug for the 10-year anniversary?

First of all, a big thank you to everyone in the community making Ethereum what it is through all their contributions. I believe Ethereum has grown tremendously in the last 10 years. From technological advancements to community growth and mainstream adoption, I think the first decade has validated the idea of a programmable blockchain functioning as a World Computer.

We have a great start for the next decade, but it’s important to continue being kind and humble as a community, to keep on learning and building with a curious mind. At the same time I think it’s crucial to keep the cypherpunk values encoded in the Ethereum protocol alive while achieving the global scalability needed.

The credible neutrality aspect of the platform, combined with the privacy enhancing technologies developed on top are key puzzle pieces for building not only new financial systems but all kinds of new systems for society.

Standing in Zug today, surrounded by hundreds of people celebrating Ethereum, how does it compare to those early days, when it was just a handful of you working on whiteboards and laptops?

I still find the magnitude of Ethereum as a worldwide community of millions of people awe inspiring. I was amazed by how many people showed up to celebrate Ethereum, from what I understood, it was the largest event organized at the Shed until now.

We had big dreams since the beginning of the project, and we were hoping to see it gain traction, but witnessing it happening in real time is incredible. I feel grateful and lucky to be alive during these times and part of this community.

This makes me hopeful that we can surpass any technical challenge that comes our way as a community of bright minds and warm hearts while remaining friendly, intellectually curious, and welcoming for the next billion(s) of people that will be onboarded in Ethereum.

To you, what is Ethereum really about today: code, community, money, or something deeper?

In the classic elephant and scientists metaphor, the scientists argue with each other whether the elephant is a tree, or a rope, or a fan, but no scientist was seeing the whole elephant. I think Ethereum is still in the process of discovering what it will become. For me, Ethereum is: code, community, programmable money, and something deeper.

I feel I don’t fully grasp the Ethereum elephant either. And, for me, this is the most exciting thing because it invites everyone to join in the search for the metaphorical elephant. In any case, I feel that Ethereum is in a profound process of discovery.

For someone holding ETH today, what is the long-term reason to still believe in its value – beyond speculation?

Firstly, it helps to understand that the entire blockchain space is a huge experiment. There are no guarantees that any of the projects, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, will be successful in the future. This is due to a variety of reasons, from unforeseen implementation problems to quantum computing breakthroughs, and hacks are all issues to keep in mind within crypto.

This is why all of the various decentralized projects should root for each other. The problems that we are trying to solve are so fundamental for our society that we cannot afford to put all our technological eggs in one basket. In the end, this should make us understand that the ultimate competition is not between decentralized solutions but between centralized and decentralized systems in general.

Whatever projects bring more decentralization to our society should be celebrated, regardless of the “crypto tribe” affiliation. This is why I am not a fan of “maximalism” in general, as can be seen with “Bitcoin maximalists” or “Ethereum maximalists”.

That being said, I think network effects are of importance, but even more so when envisioning a programmable platform designed around permissionless interoperability. This is why Ethereum has a lot of room to grow in the future.

Do you think Ethereum has lived up to the original vision you helped create or it changed?

We are working towards an updated version of the original vision, as we had to take a more pragmatic approach to what was feasible to deliver in the years that have passed.

For example, the original idea for scalability has evolved with rollups and layer 2s, the scalability outcome is fulfilled, even if slightly different from what it was imagined a decade ago.

It is essential to stay nimble and adapt to the fast-paced innovation landscape, so even if the original vision has evolved in the past decade, it was for the best.

When you co-founded Ethereum, you spoke about freedom and empowerment. Is Ethereum still a tool for that today? Will recent Genius law in the U.S. affect it?

I strongly believe that Ethereum continues to be a tool for freedom and empowerment, with advancements in privacy technologies like zero knowledge cryptography being considered as important puzzle pieces in the future of Ethereum. This should make it an even stronger tool of freedom and empowerment for both people and institutions.

The evolving U.S. regulatory landscape has definitely accelerated the adoption and development of US denominated stablecoins, which is likely to result in trillions of USD transfers being secured by Ethereum or Layer 2s built on top of Ethereum. This mainstream adoption phase will come with its own set of challenges.

This is the point when the credible neutrality and permissionless innovation aspects of Ethereum are becoming increasingly important. Ethereum is not only for settling USD stablecoins. Ethereum is about much more than that specific use-case. It is going to be up to the Ethereum community to demonstrate the broader benefits.

Looking back 10 years later, is there anything you wish Ethereum had done differently?

Looking back, I think we did a pretty good job and somehow, against all odds, Ethereum has become a success. If there is one thing I wish I knew more about it is Decentralized Autonomous Associations, but they were not yet invented at the time.

As a governance structure, a Decentralized Autonomous Association with the members being the supreme governing body would have been a better match than a Foundation for a decentralized ecosystem like Ethereum.

That being said, I am still grateful for the Foundation model as it has solidified the non-profit and open source legacy of Ethereum, which, for a brief moment, was considered a for-profit. In the early days, the competing visions for an Ethereum legal structure were “Crypto Google” or “Crypto Mozilla”. Between these two options, I’m happy that the vision of a “Crypto Mozilla” won with the result being the Ethereum Foundation.

What would you say to someone holding ETH in 2025 who’s unsure if this is all still worth it?

I think it’s a good idea to have some exposure to Ethereum’s potential for growth. But, at the same time, I would say that it’s important not to risk more than you can afford to lose, as the entire blockchain and cryptocurrency field is experimental.

I would suggest approaching this similarly to how you would manage a traditional portfolio of investments, where you allocate a certain percentage to ETH, BTC, and so forth. Depending on your risk appetite, you can decrease or increase the percentages allocated.

Looking beyond money and market share, it’s also important to note the mindshare aspect involved in technology adoption. From this perspective, Ethereum is the biggest ecosystem continuing to draw in the largest volumes of tokenized real world assets, stablecoins, and big names building global-scale financial infrastructure.

The future of Ethereum is looking bright, and we are seeing the first glimpses of real mainstream adoption. This will inevitably reflect in the ETH price as the crypto-fuel powering all the smart contracts running on Ethereum.

When you reflect on the Ethereum whiteboard sessions in Zug a decade ago, what part of the original vision has remained strongest and what part was left behind?

I think privacy and zero knowledge cryptography have been something that we always liked, but we were a little too early. Recently, we have seen many advancements in these fields, which will enable some of those early ideas either today or in the not-so-distant future. This, combined with the censorship resistance and permissionless innovation aspects, remain some of the strongest parts that Ethereum has carried since its inception.

On the other hand, we imagined DAOs would be more empowering and decentralized than reality demonstrated they are in practice. While they still hold great potential for transparent resource management and decision making, I think the idea of governance tokens has proven that even if you put governance on a blockchain and issue tokens, ultimately that tokenized governance is neither decentralized, nor empowering communities.

The idea that whoever has the most money has the most influence has not worked in the past and will hopefully not be the future of blockchain governance. For this reason, I’m grateful that Ethereum’s governance is not on-chain like other projects. I think the idea of on-chain governance still needs some work before it can deliver the desired outcome.

You played a key role in establishing Ethereum’s roots in Zug. Why was Switzerland and Crypto Valley so important to the early Ethereum experiment? Do you think it still plays a vital role today?

In the early talks with Vitalik and the other co-founders, one of the problems discussed was which jurisdiction was best for Ethereum. For me, Switzerland seemed like the ideal choice from the beginning as an established global financial nexus. If Ethereum needed a gateway to reinvent the financial system from the inside out, then Switzerland seemed to be the perfect place.

It’s important to note that things were different in 2014 compared to 2025. In major mass media publications, the image of Bitcoin and blockchains was still associated with dark markets and other unsavory things. We were fortunate that the local Zug authorities were forward thinking and able to see the positive potential that existed beyond the negative image projected by the sensationalist mass media.

Some early code contributors asked if they could contribute to the project without fear of getting into legal trouble. Thus, having a legally recognized entity in one of the most decentralized jurisdictions on the planet, with a tradition in privacy, was a match made in heaven.

In the bigger picture, Switzerland and Crypto Valley will still play a major role in the global arena as a destination for projects valuing longterm stability and clarity. I hope Crypto Valley and Switzerland will also begin incorporating governmental administrative infrastructure blockchain elements where it makes sense – from increasing transparency and efficiency to improving security, there are many interesting possibilities.

You were part of a diverse founding team with very different ideologies. How did those tensions shape Ethereum’s path and do you think the fragmentation was necessary for growth?

Looking back, the tensions you mention were normal considering that you had a few strangers from the Internet founding a previously unheard World Computer programmable blockchain without any previous experience working together.

I worked with Vitalik on Bitcoin Magazine for a couple of years before Ethereum, but besides him, I didn’t have a prior relationship with any of the other cofounders. The group had an interesting mix of technical and non technical knowledge. Even if the group has fragmented since Ethereum’s inception, I think the contributions each made were important to Ethereum’s success today.

Some of the other co-founders have started entirely new blockchain ecosystems. That is a good thing since we don’t know which experiments will be successful long term.

Is there a major turning point in Ethereum’s journey where you wish a different decision had been made? What would you change if you could go back?

At the time, the format of a Foundation was the best we could come up with in the short amount of time we had to get a legally compliant, innovative structure in Switzerland.

In hindsight, I would choose a Decentralized Autonomous Association format that can be modified for innovative decentralized governance purposes. A typical Foundation is more rigid (for good reasons), but for example a Decentralized Autonomous Association can create a structure without a President.

With a Decentralized Autonomous Association, you can establish a legally recognized, self-organizing organization capable of transparently deciding and managing resources using Ethereum without any President or king on the hill.

If I could change something, I would probably change this – but it would be difficult because DAOs and similar blockchain organizations were not yet popularized. They were popularized by Ethereum’s future growth after the launch of the blockchain. So it’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem.

Now that Crypto Valley has grown beyond Zug, what role do you see Switzerland and European crypto culture playing in Ethereum’s future compared to the U.S. or Asia?

Ethereum’s community is very international without any clear dominance of one culture or another. My hope is that Switzerland can be that country leading by example when it comes to adopting Ethereum in various local pilot experiments.

Zug was the first city in the world to accept payment in Bitcoin. In the future, I hope adoption will go beyond payments to actual systems powering our society. Decentralization is already in Switzerland’s DNA, so some overlapping areas of coordination already exist in principle.

What gives you the most hope and the most concern about where Ethereum will be 10 years from now?

The first glimpses of mainstream adoption brewing at the moment can be both exciting and concerning. On one hand, it definitely is exciting to see the technology adopted and becoming useful at a global scale.

On the other hand, once things like ETFs receive regulatory approval to do staking, it will introduce a new large staking participant in the ecosystem. I hope that the decentralization of Ethereum’s stakers securing the network will be maintained, and we won’t have any mega entity achieving more than a third of the total staked ETH.

Ethereum is for everyone from everywhere, and big corporations and banks will probably be just one use case for the technology. It will be up to the Ethereum community to keep the cypherpunk spirit alive with all these big players entering the arena.

How do you hope your contributions to Ethereum, whether philosophical, organizational, or cultural are remembered?

I hope my contributions will be remembered as authentic and motivated by a deep belief in Ethereum values. The financial success brought a nice side effect, but was never the main motivation for me.

Since November 2013, when Vitalik shared with me the earliest draft of the Ethereum whitepaper I felt that this technology, community, and movement was going to change the world. I offered to do whatever I could to make it a reality, and this is what brought me to Switzerland.

If you could send one message to the 2014 Ethereum team from today, what would it be?

Haha. Good one! I guess the message would be: “Keep going. In 2025, Ethereum is fundamentally rewriting the financial backbone of our society. And it still feels like we’re getting started!

What does it feel like being in Zug, 10 years later, knowing the global impact that Ethereum has had?

All these years later, being in Zug feels like home. The peacefulness of Zug was something that I fell in love with from the first moment we discovered it. Some people prefer Zurich or Luzern because of the busier city life. I personally prefer the stillness of the Zugersee and the sound of the cow bells on the Zugerberg.

The explosive nature of the global impact that Ethereum as a platform has had and the volatility of the cryptocurrency space as a whole can feel destabilizing. In this regard, Zug is the perfect place to compensate for the craziness of high-tech, and fast-paced innovation associated with blockchains and crypto in general.

I am grateful for the bet the city of Zug took on us when they welcomed in 2014 a legal entity designed to develop a previously unheard of permissionless World Computer named Ethereum. This also introduced a new form of value named Ether (ETH). We were crazy, but not the only crazy ones!

What was the most emotional or surreal moment for you during the anniversary event?

At the start of the event, it was magical to hear the entire venue shouting “Ethereum” as I was saying “Happy Birthday”. While playing this game together, it felt like it was the first time I was properly celebrating the birthday of Ethereum with so many people who love it as well.

Then, as I was beginning my presentation, I had butterflies in my stomach when I thanked my wife, Roxana, for all her support during the creation of Ethereum and even before it. It was a surprise for her, and the way in which the public reacted was a wonderful surprise for both of us! This is definitely a fond memory from the event.

Following the presentation, as the After Party started, the Shed venue team informed me that this was officially the largest event Shed had ever organized. That blew my mind! I am happy that it was such a resounding success locally! The Ethereum 10th Anniversary celebration makes me hopeful about accelerating the momentum we have in Zug for the Ethereum ecosystem moving forward.

BLOCKCHAIN

A Milestone in Crypto History: Ethereum Celebrates 10 Years in Zug

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