ÐΞV Amsterdam was one of the development hubs of Ethereum ÐΞV, the development entity building Ethereum. Led by Jeff Wilcke, the Amsterdam team was responsible for go-ethereum (Geth) and the Mist browser.
Formation
Jeff Wilcke described the setup in his Ethereum ÐΞV Update I from November 2014:
"Over the past months I've been been looking for a suitable office space to host the Amsterdam Hub… The lawyers have finally, after 2 months, gotten around to set up the company here in Amsterdam."
The Amsterdam hub operated separately from the Berlin hub, which focused on C++ development under Gavin Wood.
Team
Per Jeff's November 2014 update, the team members joined in this order:
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Alex van de Sande (avsa) - "The first that joined the Ams team." UX engineer working on the Mist browser prototype.
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Viktor Trón - "The second that joined the team." Working on devp2p networking. Jeff noted: "I've known Vik all the way back since the start of the project somewhere in Jan/Feb, he's a great guy and a real asset to this team."
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Felix Lange - "The third that joined the team." Go developer working on Whisper implementation. Jeff called him "a super star gopher" who "has the ability to become a true Ethereum Core Dev."
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Daniel Nagy - "The fourth that joined the team." Working on DHT specification and implementation for Swarm.
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Maran Hidskes - "Last but certainly not least." Returning to the team in an administrative role after taking time off for family. Tasked with finding office space and handling ÐΞV Amsterdam administration.
Jeff also thanked Nick Savers, Caktux, and Joris Bontje for their work on build systems, though they weren't formally on the team.
Focus Areas
The Amsterdam team worked on:
- Geth - The Go implementation of the Ethereum protocol
- Mist - The flagship Web3 browser (later renamed Ethereum Wallet)
- ethereum.js - Cross-implementation JavaScript framework
- devp2p - Peer-to-peer networking protocol
- Whisper - Messaging protocol implementation
- Swarm - Decentralized storage (specification and early development)
Relationship to Other Hubs
ÐΞV had multiple development hubs:
- Amsterdam (Jeff Wilcke) - Go client, Mist browser
- Berlin (Gavin Wood) - C++ client, Solidity, Mix IDE
- Warsaw (IMAPP) - JIT-compiled LLVM EVM implementation
The teams collaborated on shared specifications and testing, with Christoph Jentzsch in Berlin developing the comprehensive test suite used across all implementations.
Primary Source
This article draws from Jeff's Ethereum ÐΞV Update I (November 2014), which provides the definitive account of the Amsterdam team's formation and composition.