Photographer Who Photographed Ethereum Co-Founder In 2014 Was Never Paid And Missed Out On $17 Million: Is This Worse Than The 'Bitcoin Pizza' Incident?

Freelance photographers face multiple challenges, from maintaining a steady income to keeping up with the latest photography trends. For gamer and photographer Andrew Miller, his challenges turned into millions of dollars of regret after he took a portrait of Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum. 

In 2014, when the then 19-year-old Buterin was launching Ethereum and facing financial constraints, Miller proposed a portrait idea. One of Buterin’s investors suggested paying Miller in the upcoming Ethereum cryptocurrency. Miller, at his own expense, conducted the photo shoot, including expenses for dinner, a photo assistant and a makeup artist. The agreed-upon payment was to be in the form of Ethereum equivalent to the $886 value of the photo shoot.

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Miller's portraits featured a smiling Buterin in a dress shirt given to him by Miller. Miller did not receive payment for the session, which should have been made at the initial coin offering when the price of Ethereum was $0.31, amounting to approximately 3,600 Ether. At the coin's highest price of $4,891.70, reached in November, that number of coins would be worth about $17.6 million. 

Despite the initial agreement, Miller never received the cryptocurrency. Communication with Buterin ceased, and Miller remained unaware that his photo had been commercially disseminated, used in news articles, memes, fan art and even sold as knock-off non-fungible tokens (NFTs) without crediting him as the photographer. 

Miller missing out on Ethereum riches brings to mind the most famous cryptocurrency missed-out story. In May 2010, Bitcoin miner Laszlo Hanyecz offered people on a Bitcoin forum 10,000 Bitcoins in exchange for two large pizzas. At the time of this exchange, 10,000 Bitcoins were worth around $41. 

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If Hanyecz kept all of the coins and sold them at Bitcoin's highest price of $68,790, he wouldn't have enjoyed Papa John's pizza, but he would have more than $687 million. May 22, the date of the pizza sale, is "Bitcoin Pizza Day," a tongue-in-cheek nod to Hanyecz's decision.

Miller emphasizes the impact of his portraits on shaping the positive perception of Buterin and contributing to Ethereum’s rise. However, he battles for recognition and attribution, stating that his contribution to the cryptocurrency’s history remains untold. He has previously offered the original print for auction as an NFT, and the auction remains open with a starting bid of 666 Ethereum, worth approximately $1.5 million at Dec. 13 ETH pricing. 

Buterin created Ethereum as a decentralized, open-source platform, introduced smart contracts and enabled the development of decentralized applications (DApps). His creation revolutionized the blockchain landscape, offering a versatile platform for developers to build innovative solutions beyond cryptocurrencies. Buterin’s commitment to democratizing technology and creating a decentralized future made him a notable figure in the cryptocurrency space. 

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