'Scam' or Iteration? At Devcon, Ethereum Diehards Still Believe in 2.0

Lubin's statement wasn't scandalous in the least to the ethereum fans at Devcon - the community's largest and most influential annual gathering - where roughly 3,000 attendees gathered this week in Osaka, Japan.

The sanguine vibe at Devcon highlights the difference between bitcoin and ethereum, which has emerged as its own force to be reckoned with: Bitcoin is an individualistic monetary asset while ethereum, convoluted as its path to mass adoption may be, is a communal promise to continue experimenting with smart contracts, together.

According to Peter Mauric, ethereum client Parity's head of communications, the bulk of ethereum-related funding programs will now prioritize creating a new blockchain, Eth 2.

According to several sources with knowledge of ethereum infrastructure projects, the bulk of funds for Eth 1 and Eth 2 development still comes from either the Ethereum Foundation or ConsenSys, in addition to smaller funding mechanisms like the MolochDAO and the Meta Cartel, both of which also accept public donations.

While there are still many unanswered questions about how the project will diversify beyond reliance on funding from its founders, Josh Cincinnati, director of the Zcash Foundation, told CoinDesk ethereum has achieved a significant level of decentralized participation from the bottom-up.

Since Eth2 won't be the first time the ethereum community created a new chain, many fans believe it will be possible for both ethereum ecosystems to remain healthy simultaneously.

Back in 2016, differing opinions of how to address The DAO hack led to a community rift that split the chain into Ethereum Classic and the chain we now call just "Ethereum".

Plus, he argued that a pruned ethereum node with limited capabilities could still verify transactions in the rare circumstances where this is needed.

As for layer-two solutions, which allow a high number of transactions to take place off-chain and reserve the ethereum ledger for final settlement, Buterin said some are proceeding "Slower than expected. Raiden hasn't gotten too far too fast and Plasma hasn't gotten too far too fast. But people are still iterating and working on that."

Many token fans expect the current ethereum system will endure even after its primary sources of funding - the Ethereum Foundation and ConsenSys - pivot to focus resources on building the new platform.