Early Days of Ethereum

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Alex van de Sande

Alex van de Sande ("avsa")

Designer, Mist

(Oct 2014 to Jan 2019)

DEVCON0 self-introduction

Alex van de Sande DEVCON0 introduction

Alex van de Sande is the UX designer who conceived the Mist browser and co-created the Ethereum Wallet—the first dapp on Ethereum. Working from Rio de Janeiro, he designed the vision for how end users would interact with decentralized applications.

The Mist Browser Vision

Alex joined the Ethereum Foundation in late 2014 and presented his Mist browser concept in November 2014. Christoph Jentzsch described the impact of that vision:

"The Mist browser—I think there's a video by Alex Van de Sande… this also really made us understand how Ethereum could work for the end user." — Christoph Jentzsch (Episode 6)

When Fabian Vogelsteller showed up at the Berlin office with single-page app expertise, Alex saw the developer who could help build his vision and recruited him directly:

"Alex Van de Sande is the one who came on board as the UX designer also just a month before me. And he had this whole idea of creating this Mist browser concept… when Alex heard about that there's this guy that came up here that can build single page apps, then Alex thought, oh, that could be the person who can help with building the Mist browser." — Fabian Vogelsteller (Episode 12)

Building the Ethereum Wallet

Together with Fabian, Alex built the first working version of Mist in roughly three months, releasing the Ethereum Wallet with mainnet on July 31, 2015. Fabian credited Alex as the ideas person behind the project:

"I built with Alex the Ethereum Wallet which was the first ever dapp on Ethereum. Like the proper done, designed, cross-client functional thing." — Fabian Vogelsteller (Episode 12)

Alex worked remotely from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with a three to five hour time difference from the Berlin office where Fabian was based.

Sunsetting Mist

Alex sunset Mist in March 2019 for usability and security reasons, after the browser was overtaken by MetaMask's browser extension approach. But Fabian notes that many of the ideas in Alex's original Mist concept video have still not been fully realized.

Ethereum presents Mist

An introduction to Mist, the Ethereum browser that allows users to interact with decentralized applications, wallets, and smart contracts. This video walks through the Mist interface including the sidebar, app catalog, crowdfunder functionality, and integration with traditional web applications.

November 12, 2014

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