About
Honorary Doctor
Dr. hc. Vitalik Buterin
The Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Basel decided to award Vitalik Buterin an Honorary Doctorate on the occasion of the Dies Academicus on 30 November 2018. With Vitalik Buterin, the Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Basel honors an exceptionally creative and innovative thinker who has played a decisive role in shaping the digital revolution of our time. Game theory, economic incentives, and optimal design of institutions (mechanism design) play a crucial role in Vitalik’s research. This focus is shared with the Faculty of Economics of the University of Basel and its Center for Innovative Finance (CIF).
Vitalik is the creator of Ethereum. He first discovered blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies through Bitcoin in 2011 and was immediately excited by the technology and its potential. He cofounded Bitcoin Magazine in September 2011. After two and a half years of looking at what the existing blockchain technology and applications had to offer, he wrote the Ethereum white paper in November 2013. He is now a core member of the Ethereum research team, working on future versions of the Ethereum protocol.
