Frontier Era

The earliest attempt to deploy a smart contract on Ethereum mainnet.

The earliest known Ethereum contract deployment containing executable runtime code.

An early Ethereum contract that returns the string “Hello World!” when called.

The canonical Ethereum Greeter tutorial contract, deployed by Anthony Eufemio (Digix CTO, thanateros.eth) on August 7, 2015, nine days after the Ethereum Frontier genesis block.

The first publicly posted Ethereum contract that returned a value when called, demonstrating interactive smart contract execution.

An early ERC-20-like token deployed in Ethereum's first week, built directly from the example in the official Ethereum Frontier Guide documentation.

A second deployment of the FirstCoin tutorial token by the same creator, 11 blocks after the original — both derived from the official Ethereum Frontier Guide example.

The first inscription contract on Ethereum — deployed 8 days after mainnet launch, allowing users to permanently write messages to the blockchain.

An early pyramid scheme contract deployed on Ethereum mainnet on August 7, 2015, within the network's first week.

One of the earliest chain-letter investment contracts on Ethereum, accepting 10 ETH per entry and redistributing funds to earlier participants. Deployed August 7, 2015, eight days after the genesis block.

A small-denomination chain-letter investment contract paired with a 10-ETH variant, deployed August 7, 2015 by the same address. Accepts approximately 0.1 ETH per entry and redistributes to earlier participants.

A playful on-chain voting contract where users bid ETH to rank the best sci-fi movies of all time — one of the first interactive dApps on Ethereum Frontier.

The first Ethereum name registrar, enabling on-chain ownership and resolution of human-readable names to addresses.

An early Ethereum name registry deployed August 8, 2015, providing name reservation, address association, and ownership transfer, predating ENS by nearly two years.

The Ethereum Foundation multisig treasury wallet, deployed 9 days after the genesis block. Not verified on Etherscan — no official contract name exists in the source code.

The first lottery contract deployed on Ethereum mainnet, created August 9, 2015 by one of the earliest recorded Ethereum users. Built, tested with two participants, paid out, and then self-destructed within a single session.

An early Ethereum lottery contract, deployed August 9, 2015 by one of the network's earliest users as an iteration on a prototype deployed 42 minutes earlier. Remained on-chain and received queries over a decade later.

A 100-ETH chain-letter investment contract deployed August 9, 2015, part of an early family of Frontier-era financial experiment contracts with variants accepting 0.1 ETH, 10 ETH, and 100 ETH per entry.

A "King of the Hill" game contract exploring behavioral economics — players bid to become the receiver, and the last bidder standing after 200 blocks wins 25% of the pot.

A second deployment of the Ethereum GlobalRegistrar — the early name registry that predated ENS — made on August 10, 2015.

An early Ethereum roulette contract from August 2015, notable for a critical randomness vulnerability: its 'private' seed is hardcoded to 1 in the constructor.

An early Frontier-era dice gambling contract, notable for revealing a bytecode discrepancy between block explorers.

The crowdsale contract for Augur, the first dApp to raise funds on Ethereum after Ethereum itself, collecting over $5.2 million from August 17 to October 1, 2015.

The ninth iteration of the GlobalRegistrar contract, which became the canonical Ethereum name registrar hardcoded into Geth and other clients during the Frontier era.