Vitalik's Vision for Ethereum

Vitalik Buterin's vision for a more flexible blockchain platform began with him pitching his ideas to the developer communities of existing crypto protocols like Mastercoin (later Omni Layer) and Bitcoin. He envisioned a platform capable of supporting more advanced functionalities, beyond what Bitcoin's monetary-focused system could offer.

However, neither community was interested in adopting Vitalik's vision. In the case of Bitcoin, implementing his ideas would have required a substantial hardfork, fundamentally altering the codebase. This, combined with the Bitcoin community's cultural aversion to hardforks, which are seen as coercive, led to a rejection of his proposals. Similarly, the Mastercoin community viewed Vitalik's ideas as too risky due to the increased complexity and potential attack surface.

With no existing platform willing to adapt, Vitalik created Ethereum as a standalone system designed from the ground up as a versatile application platform, not just a simple "send, hold, receive" money system. The goal was to execute any kind of instruction, empowering developers to build diverse, open applications in contrast to the closed, black-box infrastructure of the traditional internet.