Ric Burton received 10k ETH from Buterin for a month of work in 2014 Ric Burton received 10k ETH from Buterin for a month of work in 2014
Burton spent one month in 2014 helping with the Ethereum design and got compensated for it two years later.
2 min read
Updated: Aug. 11, 2023 at 2:08 am UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
Web3 designer Ric Burton shared how Vitalik Buterin sent him 10,000 Ether (ETH) in 2016 as compensation for Buton’s one-month work in 2014 via a thread he posted on Twitter.
Meeting the community
Burton’s story starts in 2014, just after he got “kicked out of a profitable company” he co-founded. While listening to Bitcoin-related podcasts, Burton says he heard Buterin say, “I want to build a blockchain that I can run programs on.”
While admitting being intrigued, Burton said he didn’t change his daily routine to pursue this “Ethereum thing.” However, after hearing about Ethereum two more times, Burton says, he finally decided to see Gavin Wood‘s speech.
Burton wrote:
“I went along to the gathering and watched Gavin talk about how Facebookโs control of WhatsApp, Instagram & all of the social web was antithetical to the principles upon which the Internet was founded.
He talked about trying to shift the pendulum back towards decentralisation. I had absolutely not idea what he was talking about. But I liked the cut of his jib.”
After the talk, Burton went up to Wood and asked if ETH needed any designers. Upon this, Wood invited Burton into the core ETH community. “I was hooked,” says Burton, and says he left the UK to fly to the Bay area to meet up with Buterin himself.
“We met up, jumped on a train, and talked a bit about his plans. I could barely keep up.”
Burton said. According to his thread, the only time Burton had with Buterin was the time they spent together on the train and the car drive to San Francisco the next day, where Buterin context-switched between “learning Mandarin on his phone, talking to engineers about protocol architecture, and engage deeply with Burton’s questions about user interfaces.”
After that, Burton said he hadn’t seen Buterin for three years after that. However, Burton continued to stay engaged with the ETH community through Wood. According to the thread, Burton kept designing and adjusting according to Wood’s feedback. At the same time, however, Burton was running out of money. After a month, Burton said had to leave the community because he was “flat broke.”
The money comes back.
Burton went about his business after leaving the ETH circle until he heard back from someone at the Ethereum Foundation two years later who wanted to pay him some ETH.
He writes:
“I had no idea what that would involve, but I liked the sound of getting paid. I checked the price of Ether, it had skyrocketed to $1!
That meant they were going to pay me ~$10,000โI was over the moon.”
Even though Burton accepted immediately, the transfer never came. Since the price of ETH started to increase, Burton kept asking the foundation for the ETH, fearing they might change their minds about sending it.
Eventually, Burton says, “I hit a boiling point.” He sends Buterin a direct message on Skype, “begging for the Ether.” According to Burton, Buterin apologized for the delay and sent the funds immediately.
Burton finalizes his story by saying:
“This is the transaction that changed my life.
I totally lost my mind. I had around $100,000 of liquidity from this wonderful community.
I immediately sold a third of it to pay down debts. I had finally found: community liquidity.”
Mentioned in this article
Author 
Zeynep Geylan
Zeynep is an academic who turned to crypto in 2018. Originating in social sciences, she is especially interested in the social impact of blockchain and cryptocurrencies and strongly believes in their transmuting power.
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In this article
Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain platform that enables the creation of smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps).
Ethereum Foundation
Ethereum Foundation, a Swiss nonprofit organization, is a worldwide team of passionate developers.
Ric has designed some of the early concepts for a blockchain browser and dapp store for Ethereum in May to June of 2014.
Vitalik Buterin stands as the pioneering force behind Ethereum, a transformative community-driven platform that fuels the cryptocurrency ether (ETH) and underpins a myriad of decentralized applications.
Gavin Wood is the former Chief Technology Officer and co-ยญfounder of the Ethereum Project.