Former computer science student Vitalik Buterin, founder of the cryptocurrency Ethereum, has been named in the recent Forbes ‘30 under 30 hall of fame.’
Vitalik is one of the world’s youngest known crypto billionaires with an estimated personal fortune of US $1.4 billion.
He studied computer science at Waterloo for a year before winning a US $100,000 fellowship from the Thiel Foundation in 2014 to pursue his passion for the fledgling field of cryptocurrencies full-time.
Also on the list are basketball superstar LeBron James, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, singing star Rihanna, tennis champion Naomi Osaka and more than 20 others at the top of their fields.
Two other Waterloo alumni were also listed in the hall of fame — Apoorva Mehta, founder of Instacart, and Alex Rodrigues, co-founder of Embark Technology Inc.
The Forbes rankings come on the heels of the PitchBook listing, which put Waterloo 22nd in the world for universities that produce the most successful entrepreneurs.
Check out the full 30 under 30 hall of fame on the Forbes website.
Please also see Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains: Combining Mechanism Design and Computation, the Distinguished Lecture Series presentation Vitalik gave at the Cheriton School of Computer Science in 2019.