On January 22, 2026, Ethos marked two milestones on the same day: one year since it launched on @base, and two years as a business. To celebrate, the team shared what it called a “quick (embarrassing)” look at the history of Ethos before most people knew about it.
The look back showed the rough work that came before the product people use: early prototypes, a first brand and a placeholder website.
One year on Base, two years as a business
Earlier on January 22, 2026, Ethos posted that it had launched on Base “exactly 1 year ago this second,” which puts the Base launch on January 22, 2025. In a follow-up thread, the team added that it was also celebrating two years as a business.
That gap matters for understanding the history. Ethos existed as a company for about a year before the public launch, and the thread covered that earlier period.
The early prototypes
The first part of the thread featured early prototypes made by @serpinxbt. Ethos didn’t hold back in describing them, calling them “horrible early prototypes.”
The original elephant brand
The second part of the thread turned to the brand. In Ethos’s own words, the original brand “was really bad.” It was mostly built around an elephant, chosen because elephants never forget.
The execution, by the team’s account, was another matter. The thread shared two pieces from that era:
- The first placeholder for the marketing site, the very first version of Ethos’s public-facing page
- An AI-generated logo, which the team called “terrible”
The logo didn’t last. @porkbus fixed it, and the thread showed the improved version alongside the original.
Why look back
Anniversary posts often focus on growth. Ethos chose to mark the occasion by showing the unpolished starting point instead: rough prototypes, a placeholder site and a logo that needed replacing. For anyone who only knows Ethos as it is now, the thread offered a view of where it began, two years before.
This thread first appeared on X.
