The latest episode of Cointelegraph’s Crypto Stories features never-before-heard audio from an exclusive interview with Vitalik Buterin recorded at a conference in Hong Kong in 2014. In this animated short, viewers can learn about the origin story of Ethereum, the largest smart contract platform, straight from the co-founder himself.

Back in 2011, while Buterin was a student at the University of Waterloo, he first heard about Bitcoin 

BTC

$18,834

 from his tech entrepreneur father. However, he didn't take the decentralized currency seriously until he began participating in the Bitcointalk forum created by Satoshi Nakamoto. 

In Buterin’s own search to learn about Bitcoin, he became a writer for the now-defunct Bitcoin Weekly website, where he got paid 5 BTC per article, or $4 at the time.

Related: Finance Redefined: Vitalik bearish on cross-chain, dYdX decentralizing, Jan. 7–14

Next, he took his newfound journalism skills to join Mihai Alisie in co-founding Bitcoin Magazine. The first issue was published in May 2012, according to the publication’s website, and the magazine is now owned by BTC Media. 

Buterin decided to withdraw from his university studies in 2013 at 19 years old to pursue working on blockchain-related projects full time while traveling around the world. Throughout this time, he realized that cryptocurrency could be used for “more than just money” and should allow for more “freedom.”

Buterin’s dream was to develop a blockchain with a built-in programming language, and thus, Ethereum was born, with the help of Alisie and others. The project was officially announced in January 2014.

Related: How a young rebel started Thailand’s leading crypto exchange | Crypto Stories Ep. 1

To read more about Ethereum, check out Cointelegraph’s Ethereum 101 guides and an in-depth profile on Buterin.