Who founded Ethereum and published its initial proposal in 2013?

Vitalik Buterin founded Ethereum and published its initial proposal in 2013.

Buterin, a Russian-Canadian programmer and writer, described Ethereum as a blockchain platform that could support general-purpose smart contracts rather than functioning only as a digital-currency payment system. He published the proposal in late 2013, and the Ethereum project later developed through contributions from several other early founders and developers.

Ethereum’s network launched in July 2015. Its native cryptocurrency is ether, while its programmable execution environment allowed developers to create decentralized applications and tokens on a shared blockchain. This broader design helped make Ethereum a major platform for decentralized finance, non-fungible tokens, and other blockchain applications.

A common mix-up is treating Ethereum and ether as identical terms. Ethereum is the network and software platform; ether is the native asset used for payments and computational fees. Gavin Wood, Joseph Lubin, Charles Hoskinson, Anthony Di Iorio, and Mihai Alisie were important early participants, but Buterin authored the original proposal.