Ten years ago, Ethereum wasn't a great asset, network, or even team. Vitalik was young, and many leeches exploited his enthusiasm for their own agenda. Ten years ago, 90% of the popular smart contracts were literal Ponzi pyramids because the use case was to prove they were "fair"ponzi (I still have 50 ETH in one) Most "co-founders" were a net negative. IMHO, the true beginning of the ETH era started after the DAO hack and subsequent ETC fork in the summer of 2016. This major crisis removed the innocence, cleaned the ecosystem, and enabled a whole new generation to build Ethereum as it is today.