It was really to fund research and development of open-source cryptographic protocols which are usually out of the VCs radars. The mechanism used was itself a

It was really to fund research and development of open-source cryptographic protocols which are usually out of the VCs radars. The mechanism used was itself a revolutionary development, fungible digital tokens (ERC20). There are new protocols for fundraising that are designed to give token holders more control over the disbursement of rewards to the development teams but the wider market still needs a good cleanup imho.