- The Torch NFT launches July 21st, symbolically passing between wallets for 10 days before being destroyed on Ethereum’s 10th anniversary, July 30th.
- Ethereum’s decade includes major milestones: mainnet launch 2015, DAO incident 2016, ICO boom 2017, DeFi revolution 2020, NFT explosion 2021, and The Merge 2022.
- All users can mint commemorative NFTs on July 30th after The Torch’s destruction, representing Ethereum’s democratic values and community-driven innovation approach.
Ethereum celebrates its 10th anniversary with The Torch NFT, a symbolic tribute passing between wallets before destruction on July 30th. Explore a decade of groundbreaking milestones from DeFi to The Merge.
THE TORCH: A SYMBOL OF COLLECTIVE ACHIEVEMENT
On July 21st, Ethereum officially launched The Torch NFT, a special commemorative token designed to honor the individuals and values that have shaped the platform’s first decade.
This symbolic gesture provides the perfect opportunity to reflect on the extraordinary milestones that have defined Ethereum’s journey from ambitious concept to global technological infrastructure.
The concept behind The Torch goes beyond traditional anniversary celebrations.
Instead of a static commemoration, this NFT embodies the dynamic nature of Ethereum itself, representing the countless innovations and breakthroughs that have occurred since its inception. Over the course of 10 days leading up to the anniversary, this unique token will pass symbolically between different wallets before being destroyed on July 30th, when all users will have the opportunity to mint their own commemorative NFT.
A DECADE OF GROUNDBREAKING MILESTONES
2015
Ethereum’s ten-year history reads like a chronicle of technological revolution, beginning with Vitalik Buterin’s groundbreaking whitepaper in late 2013. However, the real transformation began on July 30th, 2015, when Ethereum’s mainnet officially launched, introducing the world to programmable blockchain technology and smart contracts.
This moment marked the beginning of what would become the foundation for an entirely new digital economy.
2016
The DAO experiment in 2016 became one of Ethereum’s defining moments, despite its controversial outcome.
This ambitious attempt at creating a decentralized autonomous organization raised over $150 million worth of Ether, demonstrating unprecedented interest in decentralized governance.
However, a critical vulnerability in the smart contract code led to the infamous hack, resulting in the loss of approximately one-third of the funds. The incident ultimately led to a contentious hard fork that split the network into Ethereum and Ethereum Classic.
While divisive at the time, this experience strengthened Ethereum’s governance model and proved the community’s ability to make difficult decisions when faced with existential challenges.
2017
The year 2017 witnessed an explosion of innovation as the Initial Coin Offering boom took hold of the cryptocurrency space.
Ethereum became the launchpad for thousands of new projects, with entrepreneurs and developers leveraging its smart contract capabilities to raise billions of dollars in funding. Projects ranging from utility tokens to ambitious blockchain platforms chose Ethereum as their foundation, validating its position as the premier platform for decentralized applications.
Although the ICO market eventually cooled and many projects failed to deliver on their promises, this period established Ethereum as the go-to infrastructure for blockchain innovation.
2018
Between 2018 and 2020, Ethereum experienced what many consider its most transformative evolution with the emergence of Decentralized Finance.
Early DeFi protocols like MakerDAO pioneered decentralized lending by introducing DAI, a stablecoin backed by collateralized debt positions. Subsequently, platforms like Compound revolutionized lending markets by enabling algorithmic interest rate determination, while Uniswap transformed trading through its automated market maker model.
These protocols didn’t merely replicate traditional financial services; they reimagined how financial infrastructure could operate without intermediaries, creating entirely new paradigms for value exchange.
2020
The summer of 2020 marked DeFi’s breakthrough moment when total value locked in Ethereum-based protocols surged from hundreds of millions to tens of billions of dollars.
This exponential growth demonstrated that decentralized financial services could attract significant capital and user adoption. Moreover, the composability of DeFi protocols created a “money lego” effect, where different applications could seamlessly integrate with one another, amplifying innovation across the entire ecosystem.
The Non-Fungible Token explosion of 2021 brought Ethereum to mainstream attention in unprecedented ways. Projects like CryptoPunks, which had existed since 2017, suddenly captured global imagination alongside newer collections such as Bored Ape Yacht Club and Art Blocks.
Beyond digital art, NFTs expanded into gaming, music, sports memorabilia, and virtual real estate, demonstrating blockchain technology’s potential for establishing digital ownership and provenance. This cultural phenomenon introduced millions of new users to Ethereum while generating billions in trading volume.
The rise of layer-2 scaling solutions addressed one of Ethereum’s most persistent challenges: network congestion and high transaction fees.
Solutions like Polygon emerged as sidechains offering faster and cheaper transactions while maintaining compatibility with Ethereum’s ecosystem. Meanwhile, rollup technologies such as Arbitrum and Optimism provided scaling without compromising on security by inheriting Ethereum’s consensus guarantees. These developments democratized access to Ethereum-based applications, enabling users worldwide to participate regardless of their economic circumstances.
2022
Perhaps no single event in Ethereum’s history compares to The Merge in September 2022, when the network successfully transitioned from energy-intensive Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake consensus.
This transition represented years of meticulous research, development, and testing, ultimately reducing Ethereum’s energy consumption by over 99% while maintaining network security and decentralization. The successful execution of such a complex upgrade on a live network worth hundreds of billions of dollars demonstrated Ethereum’s technical maturity and development community’s competence.
2023
Following The Merge, subsequent upgrades continued enhancing Ethereum’s capabilities and user experience. The Shanghai upgrade in April 2023 enabled validator withdrawals, completing the staking infrastructure and providing greater flexibility for network participants. These ongoing improvements reflect Ethereum’s commitment to continuous evolution while maintaining backward compatibility and network stability.
Recent years have witnessed unprecedented institutional adoption of Ethereum technology and assets. Major corporations have integrated Ethereum-based solutions into their operations, while traditional financial institutions have begun offering cryptocurrency custody and trading services. The approval of spot Ethereum ETFs has provided new investment vehicles for institutional capital, legitimizing Ethereum as a mature asset class worthy of portfolio allocation.
LOOKING FORWARD: THE NEXT DECADE BEGINS
As The Torch NFT makes its symbolic journey between wallets before its destruction on July 30th, it carries with it the weight of these remarkable achievements. The subsequent opportunity for all users to mint commemorative NFTs represents the democratic spirit that has always characterized Ethereum’s development approach.
The burning of The Torch will mark not just the end of Ethereum’s first decade, but the beginning of its next chapter. With ongoing developments in scalability through sharding, enhanced privacy features, and continued user experience improvements, Ethereum continues evolving while maintaining its core commitment to decentralization and permissionless innovation.
This anniversary celebration reminds us that Ethereum’s greatest achievement isn’t any single technical breakthrough, but rather its creation of a platform that enables countless others to build, experiment, and innovate. As the community prepares to mint their commemorative NFTs on July 30th, they’re not just celebrating the past – they’re participating in the ongoing story of one of technology’s most transformative platforms.
〈Ethereum Celebrates A Decade Of Innovation With The Torch NFT〉這篇文章最早發佈於《CoinRank》。
