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I am trying to understand the institutional setup of Ethereum.
I could identify the following institutions: (1) The Ethereum foundation, (2) ETHDEV and (3) ETHCORE.
The foundation (1) is apparently a non-profit foundation based in Switzerland and Vitalik's blog post earlier this month gives some insights into the activities of the foundation. However, I cannot really get a grip on ETHDEV (2) and ETHCORE (3). People-wise there seems to be a significant overlap.
As the development of Ethereum was anticipated to require many upfront resources and eventually trail off in development, over time developers have joined complementary organizations in the ecosystem, including Consensys, Slock.It, ETHCORE, and others.
Because it would be infeasible for any single organization to pursue all development avenues, the expansion of companies focusing on specific niches of the ecosystem is considered a positive move and adding value to the ecosystem as a whole.
Ethereum foundation owns CIC (a foundation). CIC owns ETHDEV. ETHDEV develops for the Ethereum core protocol. To ensure survival of of Ethereum, Ming/Vitalik have restructured the company to become lean, reduce it's burn rate and last Serenity is company (beyond).
ETHCORE - independent for profit company.
