This "alliance", to me, represents an unfortunate shift from the open-source community who has built and existed alongside ethereum. Essentially ethereum has created this alliance with corporations and many people's first idea is "Oh This is Great! This Means Ethereum Will Be More Valuable!". But unfortunately, the opposite is true. Essentially what this alliance is doing is allowing these companies to use the ethereum network to test blockchain. The companies then pay Ethereum money for this technology, create their own version of it, and then split from it. They don't release any token, they don't have an ICO, nothing. They just pay them, use the tech, create their own version of it, and then leave. They have the money and processing power to essentially deploy their own blockchain for their own purposes --- thus privatizing it. This is what is happening and many of us are too wrapped up in the possibility of making bank to see it. While ethereum foundation is getting paid, we are getting screwed. This occured to me last night when I started doing research on the POWR token. I read an article in MIT found here:
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609077/how-blockchain-could-give-us-a-smarter-energy-grid/
that talked about the POWR token and then went into the RMI (Rocky Mountain Institute) and their recent partnering with a blockchain company from Austria called Grid Singularity. Grid Singularity has no ICO, no token, nothing. If you look deeper into it you will see they are using blockchain technology and essentially testing it and selling it privately. This defeats the entire premise of Ethereum!!!! Decentralized currency is becoming centralized! These companies are testing the tech on Ethereum network, creating their own non-ERC20 blockchain technology, and then dumping it -- dumping the ethereum network and all who contribute to it, buy ETH, etc. In effect this means that they will have this technology, develop their own system of value based on their privatized assets, and then allow the technology to interact with the public. In effect, they will then be selling back to the Ethereum network what it helped create! This is happening in front of our eyes and below our noses. But what they don't realize is that the power of blockchain comes from its collective power. The collective power of many people using and investing in it essentially creates its value and usability. They will be creating lesser versions of it.
I, for one, am appalled. This is not good for us who have spent time and money believing in this technology as individuals and now we face companies simply selling this functionality back to us in a shittier form. We need to keep the open-sourceness of this alive. This will be the most powerful way to deploy this technology to making many things more advanced and simpler. Ethereum has sold out to corporations. They got rich and now they want to get richer. But they are, in effect, selling out their original purpose and the original power of the blockchain.