"The Great Deletion" refers to the significant editing of Ethereum's original BitcoinTalk announcement post, "[ANN] Ethereum: Welcome to the Beginning", which was first published by Vitalik Buterin on January 23, 2014. The post was last edited on August 19, 2014, and the revised version removed the names of many early team members and contributors who had been listed in the original.
The Original Post
The original version of the post, preserved by the Wayback Machine from February 8, 2014, listed four "fiduciary team" members and a larger group of developers, marketers, and partners:
Fiduciary team:
Developers, marketers, entrepreneurs, evangelists and partners:
- Gavin Wood (Core C++ Developer)
- "Geff Obscura" (Core Go Developer)
- Emanuele Costa (Quantitative Analyst; SCRUM Master)
- Joseph Lubin (Software Engineering, Quantitative Analyst)
- Eric Lombrozo (Software Architect)
- Max Kaye (Developer)
- Jonathan Mohan (Media, Marketing and Evangelism — BitcoinNYC)
- Wendell Davis (Strategic Partner and Branding — Hive Wallet)
- Anthony Donofrio (Logos, branding, Web Development — Hive Wallet)
- Taylor Gerring (Web Development)
- Paul Snow (Language Development, Software Development)
- Chris Odom (Strategic Partner, Developer — Open Transactions)
- Jerry Liu and Bin Lu (Chinese strategy and translations)
- Hai Nguyen (Accounting)
- Amir Shetrit (Business Development — Colored Coins)
- Steve Dakh (Developer — KryptoKit)
- Kyle Kurbegovich (Media — Cointalk)
The Edited Version
The current version of the post was significantly rewritten, listing only:
Primary core devs:
- Vitalik Buterin
- Gavin Wood
- Jeffrey Wilcke
Primary non-development members:
- Anthony Di Iorio
- Mihai Alisie
- Joseph Lubin
- Stephan Tual
The edit removed Charles Hoskinson from the fiduciary team, removed Amir Shetrit (Chetrit), and removed many early contributors including Emanuele Costa, Eric Lombrozo, Max Kaye, Jonathan Mohan, Wendell Davis, Paul Snow, Chris Odom, Jerry Liu, Bin Lu, Hai Nguyen, Steve Dakh, and Kyle Kurbegovich. The post was last edited on August 19, 2014, a period that coincided with significant internal restructuring of the Ethereum project.
Significance
The Great Deletion is notable because it effectively wrote several early contributors out of the public record of Ethereum's founding. The original BitcoinTalk post was one of the primary public documents of Ethereum's early team composition. By editing it after the fact, the historical record was altered, making it harder to trace who was involved in the project's earliest days. The Wayback Machine's archived snapshots remain the primary source for the original version.