Vitalik Buterin Honored with Doctorate by Swiss University

By Swati Kishore

The oldest University in Switzerland, the University of Basel has granted an honorary doctorate to Vitalik Buterin, the Co-Founder of the blockchain-based distributed computing platform Ethereum. The information was released on November 30, 2018 on the university’s official website.

As per a tweet by the University of Basel, Buterin has been awarded by The Faculty of Business and Economics for his outstanding achievements. These achievements have been made in the fields of Smart Contracts, cryptocurrencies, as well as the design of institutions.

Dean Prof. Dr. Med. Aleksander Berentsen awarded the honorary degree to Vitalik Buterin at the university’s annual event titled ‘Dies academicus’ which was hosted on November 30, 2018. Berentsen is the Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics, as well as the Professor of Economic Theory at the University of Basel.

At the event, the university highlighted the contribution made by Buterin towards the promotion of the idea of decentralization. The University of Basel also noted Buterin’s participation in the digital revolution. Notably, Buterin had published his white paper without commitment to any university or a formal degree.

Buterin heavily criticized centralized exchanges in July 2018. He stated that such institutions should not exist and that the crypto community must fight back the ‘stupid king making power’ idea. The software developer subsequently confirmed his support for decentralization.

Back in November, Buterin announced the details of the impending upgrade of the Ethereum Network, dubbed as ‘Serenity’. The Ethereum 2.0 is set to integrate the various Ethereum projects that have been in the works since 2014. Buterin did not elaborate on the date of the launch of Ethereum 2.0, however he did say it was not far away.  

Ethereum was launched in the summer of 2015. It is open-source, public, distributed computing platform which features Smart Contracts. It provides the basis for the development of dapps or decentralized applications. Ethereum is also one of the major cryptocurrencies in the market with a market capitalization of $11,603,386,284 at the time of writing.