With Ethereum and ICOs, startup funding has begun to decentralize.

Judged as of 2018-04-02. True if evidence shows that by early 2018, Ethereum-based ICOs had become a real and substantial channel for raising startup or project funding outside traditional gatekeepers such as VCs, banks or underwriters, open to buyers worldwide. Examples would be ICO fundraising totals in the billions of dollars in 2017 to early 2018, raised mostly through Ethereum token sales from dispersed buyers. The claim only says funding had "begun" to decentralize, so it does not need to be shown that funding became mostly decentralized. Mostly true if ICO funding was real and significant but the evidence shows the decentralization was notably partial, for example big funds or VCs dominating many ICO allocations, while the general claim still holds. Mixed if the evidence is balanced: ICOs raised large sums, but major sources document that much of the funding was concentrated, intermediated or fraudulent, so whether a real decentralization had begun is unclear. Mostly false if ICO funding was marginal, or was mostly controlled by traditional intermediaries, so calling it a decentralization of funding overstates a small phenomenon. False if Ethereum ICOs had raised no meaningful startup funding by that date.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 ICO funding hit all-time high at end of 2017 Yahoo Finance (reporting CoinDesk's Q4 2017 State of Blockchain report) · 7 February 2018

   “CoinDesk's data shows that all-time cumulative funding raised through ICOs is at $5.68 billion, and a stunning $3.23 billion of that came in Q4 of 2017.”

2. E2 ICOs > VC funding to blockchain - CB Insights Research CB Insights · 24 January 2018

   “ICOs raised over $5B across nearly 800 deals in 2017 while equity investors deployed $1B in 215 deals to the sector.”

3. E3 [PDF] Digital Economy Outlook - BBVA Research BBVA Research · December 2017

   “Ethereum is the leading blockchain platform for ICOs, with more than 56% market share1.”

4. E4 ICOs delivered at least 3.5x more capital to blockchain startups than VC since 2017 | TechCrunch TechCrunch · 4 March 2018

   “The ultimate conclusion of that survey is stark: “59% of last year’s crowdsales are either confirmed failures or failures-in-the-making.””

E1 (CoinDesk data, via Yahoo Finance) reports that ICOs had raised $5.68 billion in total, $3.23 billion of it in Q4 2017. E2 (CB Insights) reports that ICOs raised over $5B across nearly 800 deals in 2017, against $1B in 215 equity deals to blockchain startups. E3 (BBVA Research) names Ethereum as the leading ICO platform, with more than 56% market share. E4 says many 2017 crowdsales had failed or were failing, but that concerns how the projects turned out, not whether funding had begun to decentralize, and none of the evidence shows VCs or other intermediaries controlling ICO allocations, so the criteria for "true" are met.