On December 7, 2015, the Ethereum Foundation published the third installment of its groundbreaking tutorial series, demonstrating how developers could construct fully transparent banking systems on the Ethereum blockchain. The guide, titled “Ethereum in Practice Part 3: How to Build Your Own Transparent Bank on the Blockchain,” arrived at a pivotal moment — just four months after the network’s Frontier launch and with Ether trading at approximately $0.81.
TL;DR
- Ethereum Foundation releases third tutorial in its DAO-building series on December 7, 2015
- Guide demonstrates minting tokens controlled by decentralized autonomous organizations
- Ethereum trades at $0.81 with a market cap of roughly $61 million
- Tutorial series shows step-by-step creation of tokens, democracies, and transparent banks
- Development represents early groundwork for what would become DeFi
A Three-Part Blueprint for Decentralized Finance
The Ethereum Foundation’s tutorial series, published across the first week of December 2015, represented one of the earliest comprehensive guides to building decentralized financial infrastructure. The series walked developers through three progressive stages: creating a custom cryptocurrency token (published December 3), building a digital democracy governed by token holders (December 4), and finally, constructing a transparent bank controlled entirely by a DAO (December 7).
The third tutorial focused on modifying token contracts to allow minting by a DAO rather than individual control. By designating the DAO as the “Central Minter,” the system ensured that no single person could create new tokens — instead, token creation required a formal proposal, community voting, and execution only after the voting period concluded.
How the Transparent Bank Works
The system described in the tutorial functioned as follows: a DAO would be created with its own governance token, and members could propose actions such as minting new tokens to specific addresses. Each proposal included a transaction bytecode — essentially the computer instruction — along with a cryptographic hash to verify that the executed code matched what was voted on. This hash-based verification system prevented malicious actors from swapping in different code after a proposal passed.
The tutorial explained that when tokens were minted through this process, they appeared as transfers from address zero — the Ethereum equivalent of creating something from nothing. Conversely, sending tokens to address zero effectively destroyed them, establishing a built-in mechanism for both inflation and deflation within the DAO’s control.
Ethereum’s Frontier Ecosystem in Late 2015
The release of these tutorials reflected Ethereum’s broader strategy in late 2015. The network, which had launched its Frontier release on July 30, 2015, was still in its earliest and most experimental phase. Developers were exploring the platform’s capabilities, and the Ethereum Wallet — the primary interface for interacting with the blockchain — was being positioned as a tool not just for holding Ether, but for deploying and managing smart contracts.
At the time, Ethereum’s market capitalization stood at approximately $61 million, with each ETH token valued at roughly $0.81. This was a fraction of Bitcoin’s $5.9 billion market cap, but the gap in functionality was precisely the point — Ethereum was positioning itself not as a competitor currency, but as a programmable platform that could host entirely new categories of financial applications.
The Broader Crypto Landscape
The tutorials arrived during a notable period for the broader cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin was trading near $395, having recovered dramatically from its 2015 low of $177 in January. The broader market was seeing increased institutional interest — the New York Stock Exchange had launched its Bitcoin index (NYXBT), the Winklevoss twins had opened the Gemini exchange in October, and the Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC) had begun trading. Venture capital investment in blockchain companies had reached $314 million in 2015 according to Pitchbook, with major players like Goldman Sachs, American Express, and Nasdaq backing blockchain startups.
Meanwhile, the altcoin market remained modest in comparison to Bitcoin. XRP traded at $0.0056 with a market cap of $186 million, Litecoin sat at $3.65, and Dash was priced at $2.33. Ethereum, despite its lower price point, was generating disproportionate attention due to its programmability — a feature that would eventually help it grow into the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
Why This Matters
The Ethereum Foundation’s December 2015 tutorial series represented far more than educational content — it was a manifesto for decentralized finance delivered as practical instruction. By showing that anyone could create tokens, governance systems, and transparent banking infrastructure using nothing more than the Ethereum Wallet and some Solidity code, the Foundation was laying the groundwork for what would eventually become a trillion-dollar DeFi ecosystem. The principles outlined in these tutorials — DAO-governed token minting, bytecode verification, and transparent on-chain governance — remain foundational to DeFi protocols operating today. Looking back from a market where ETH trades at orders of magnitude higher than $0.81, these early tutorials were the first building blocks of an entirely new financial paradigm.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments carry significant risk. Always conduct your own research before making investment decisions.