Mihai Alisie and a teenage Vitalik Buterin found the first serious publication covering Bitcoin, and the working relationship becomes Ethereum

MAY 01 2012 · 12:00

Video: The Man Who Rewrote the Internet | Vitalik Buterin Date: 2012-05-01 · Type: bitcoin · Hub: toronto · Tags: bitcoin-magazine, vitalik-buterin, mihai-alisie, toronto, bucharest, journalism, ethereum-precursor, print-media Five BTC per article — enough, by late 2013, to fund a dropout and a world tour. Alisie put out a call on BitcoinTalk for a print magazine covering the Bitcoin ecosystem with editorial standards. Buterin, then finishing high school in Toronto, had already been writing for Bitcoin Weekly at five BTC per article — a rate that would fluctuate between trivial and life-changing as the price moved. He joined as co-founder. The magazine was the first publication to treat the space with something approaching editorial seriousness, distinct both from the boosterism of most forum posts and the crime-beat register that mainstream press was beginning to adopt. Bitcoin Magazine functioned as connective tissue for the early international scene: Alisie in Bucharest, Buterin perpetually traveling, contributors from Singapore to São Paulo filing pieces that were edited in two countries and printed wherever the economics permitted. The distribution problem was real — a print magazine about digital money, sold in specialty shops and by subscription — but the editorial project mattered independently of the logistics. It was the record of a community thinking out loud before it had institutions. The personal relationship between Alisie and Buterin during these two years was the backbone of what became Ethereum. When Buterin circulated the whitepaper in late 2013, Alisie was among the first fifteen recipients. He became an Ethereum co-founder and led the foundation's early communications. The magazine was acquired by BTC Inc. in 2015; Buterin left its editorial orbit as Ethereum consumed his time. But the arc from BitcoinTalk call-for-contributors to Ethereum whitepaper distribution runs directly through those two years of shared editorial work. Facts • First print issue: May 2012; online content predated the print launch by several months • Buterin's first paid writing: Bitcoin Weekly, late 2011, at five BTC per article • Alisie based in Romania; Buterin based in Toronto and increasingly traveling • Buterin won bronze at the International Olympiad in Informatics 2012 while co-editing the magazine • Acquired by BTC Inc. (David Bailey) in 2015 • Both Alisie and Buterin became Ethereum co-founders; Buterin left magazine duties in late 2014 Primary Documents • Bitcoin Magazine author archive: Vitalik Buterin — https://bitcoinmagazine.com/authors/vitalik-buterin