Looking back at the Ethereum crowdfunding data 8 years ago, what is the current proportion of crowdfunding supply?
Originally written by Kyle Waters, Nate Maddrey and Matías Andrade
Compilation of the original text: The Way of DeFi
Compilation of the original text: The Way of DeFi
first level title
Ethereum crowdfunding 8 years ago
After years of testing, research, and development, there is growing interest in Ethereum's planned transition to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) via The Merge.potential timelineget excited. The merger, arguably the biggest protocol-level change in Ethereum’s history, does away with mining and introduces a system of validators who will stake their ETH to earn rewards for creating and validating new blocks.
Tracking ETH supply continues to attract attention, as ETH holdings directly determine a user's ability to participate in PoS. At the same time, switching to PoS will also introduce a new ETH issuance model and affect ETH's monetary policy. However, to get a better idea of Ethereum's current supply, observers need to go back a year before the launch of the Ethereum network, to a critical period between July 22, 2014 and September 2, 2014: the ETH Crowdsale.
This article will passATLAS by Coin Metricsbackground introduction
background introduction
How should cryptocurrency be initially distributed? This question has been a source of contention for years. There are now many initial release models with varying amounts of rewards for early adopters and contributors, resulting inThere are stark differences in the distribution of supply。
For Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto released the first version of Bitcoin code in 2009This problem was solved when:
You can run a node and generate blocks by having someone send you some coins, or by opening Options->Generate Coins. I set the difficulty of the proof of work to be very easy, so for a while at first a normal computer will be able to generate coins in just a few hours.
Anyone can download Bitcoin's open-source software and contribute computing power to securing the network in exchange for newly minted BTC. According to Bitcoin's supply plan, the first 50 BTC were created in the genesis block, the same amount as any other block until the first time in 2012cut in halfWhen the block reward dropped to 25 BTC (interestingly, the 50 genesis coinscan'tused, and proved to be lost).
The new model has since been tested as bitcoin alternative cryptocurrencies proliferate. In 2013, Mastercoin (MSC), the predecessor to Bitcoin's Omni layer, launched a fundraising campaign using Bitcoin as a crowdfunding platform. Anyone can send BTC to a specified address and receive a certain amount of MSC at a predetermined rate. The project wasRaised over 5000 Bitsimage description
sourcesource）
Like Mastercoin, Ethereum Crowdfunding trades BTC for ETH. When Ethereum launched the following year, participants in the crowdsale were promised to distribute ETH. By using Bitcoin as a crowdfunding platform, anyone in the world can theoretically participate. Author and Founder of Defiant NewsCamila Russo in her bookThe profound implications of ETH crowdfunding are summarized in The Infinite Machine, a book that examines Ethereum's roots.wonderful description：
“Before, anyone who wanted to buy shares in a big tech company like Facebook or Google needed a U.S. bank account; for people who wanted to invest in startups that hadn’t raised money in the public markets, things got more complicated. Now , anyone can become an investor in one of the most cutting-edge tech companies. All they need is an internet connection and at least 0.01 Bitcoin.”
crowdfundingAtLaunched on July 22, 2014, the program lasts 42 days. By this point, Vitalik and other early contributors had shown the world the vision of Ethereum, most notably in the 2013 Ethereum whitepaper and in January of that year at Bitcoin Miami 2014.speech.
source:
source:Terms and Conditions of the Ethereum Genesis Sale
At the time, using Bitcoin as a crowdfunding mechanism was a novel experiment on many levels. But one consequence of crowdfunding on a public ledger is that we have easy access to this rich set of contributed data years later. Unsurprisingly, the data has been the subject of a great deal of scrutiny to date — the most intenseWhat Preston Byrnes said in 2018and independent cryptocurrency researchersHasu's data-driven follow-upanalyze.
Bitcoin "Exodus" Address Statistics
The graph below shows the total amount of BTC sent to a Bitcoin address (36PrZ1KHYMpqSyAQXSG8VwbUiq2EogxLo2) controlled by the Ethereum team (called the “Exodus wallet”). It is worth noting that theaddressIt was one of the most valuable multi-signature (multisig) addresses at the time.
It also shows the total amount of BTC and USD equivalent raised and the total amount of ETH sold during the crowdsale. Raised over 31,000 BTC, worth approximately $18.3 million, and sold a total of 60 million ETH (which made Ethereum the mostand）。
source:Coin Metrics ATLASandCoin Metrics Reference Rate
Of the 60 million ETH sold, roughly 50 million were sold within the first two weeks of the heavily discounted price — with a notable spike in sales at the beginning of the sale and on the final day when 2,000 ETH per BTC was purchased.
Between the minimum purchase amount of 0.01 BTC and the maximum purchase amount of 500 BTC, there were a total of 8437 transactions (although there is theoretically no way to restrict contributors from splitting larger amounts across multiple addresses). The three largest purchases were 500, 466, and 330 BTC. The average purchase is 3.65 BTC or about 7000 ETH.
Ultimately, given the pseudo-anonymity of Bitcoin addresses, it’s hard to say much more about the participants, but the results nonetheless provide valuable insight into one of the most important events in cryptocurrency history to date.
Current crowdfunding supply ratio
In addition to the 60 million ETH sold in the crowdsale, early ETH contributors also received an additional amount equivalent to approximately 10% of the total ETH sold, with another approximately 10% reserved for the Ethereum Foundation.
image description
Source: Coin Metrics Formula Builder
Please note that the chart above is only for comparison with Proof of Work (PoW) issuance over time and does not reflect the genesis account's distribution of its tokens over time. In other words, the set of accounts controlling 72 million ETH has been changing and growing since Genesis.
Over 92% of Genesis accounts have moved their ETH so far, and only 693 accounts have never moved their ETH to date (the largest being 0x2b6ed29a95753c3ad948348e3e7b1a251080ffb9ETH, which controls 250,000 ETH).
Looking at all genesis accounts, the largest one in terms of the amount of ETH held today is 0x1b3cb81e51011b549d78bf720b0d924ac763a7c2, which controls 347,000 ETH (approximately $530 million at today’s ETH price), and received 56 million ETH (approximately 213,000 ETH was transferred until this year).
But in general, Ethereum accounts created at Genesis control only 2.66 million ETH today, accounting for about 2% of the total ETH supply, down from 7 million ETH in 2018 (of course, some Holders may simply transfer their ETH to a custodian/exchange or to a new account).
While its lasting impact on supply distribution is often debated, it is undeniable that the ETH crowdsale was an ambitious project whose success reflects a new era around programmable blockchains to support smart contracts and decentralized applications enthusiasm. With The Merge on the horizon, many eyes are on ethereum as it enters a critical phase in its less than ten-year history.
Also check out other resources covering ETH supply and its pre-sale:
Galaxy Digital Research：A Breakdown of Ethereum Supply Distribution Since Genesis
Takens theorem:Original link
