Uncovering Ethereum's close ties to Chinese money
Most information about Ethereum is in English and, as a result, appeals to Western investors. However, evidence uncovered by Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, court cases, and online archives points to a heavy Chinese influence. Although early Etherians remember some Chinese backers, modern investors could be forgiven for barely recalling the blockchain’s Chinese ties. Here’s a refresher for newer users. Ethereum’s whitepaper published in Chinese Vitalik Buterin personally ensured that the Ethereum Wiki published a Chinese language version of the Ethereum whitepaper by January 22, 2015 — more than six months before the Ethereum mainnet went live at the end of July. Vitalik Buterin’s interest in speaking Chinese According to Laura Shin’s book The Cryptopians, as early as January 2014, when the Ethereum team met in Miami to announce Bitcoin 2.0, Vitalik Buterin seemed preoccupied with learning the Chinese language using a phone app. Ethereum hosted a co...