Who is Vitalik Buterin?

Vitalik Buterin is a Russian-Canadian programmer and writer most famously known for co-founding Ethereum. In 2013, Buterin published a whitepaper proposing Ethereum as a world computer capable of hosting a wide range of decentralized applications (dApps). In contrast to bitcoin (BTC) — which is more geared towards payments and serving as a store of value — Ethereum was intended to serve as a "Swiss-army knife protocol," with more flexible and wide-ranging applications. Buterin went on to collaborate with several other co-founders to develop Ethereum, which was launched in 2015. To date, Buterin is regarded by many crypto enthusiasts as the de facto figurehead of Ethereum.