The famous poem goes a little something like this...

Two Roads diverged in a yellow wood, 

And I, I took the one less travelled by...

Ethereum is coming to a turning point in its existence where it might need to choose a different identity to the one it has thrived on for so many years. It started as the programmable version of cryptocurrency, and did things that Bitcoin could not and would not do. Its only with Ethereum that:

• Crypto could be programmed into a smart contract with inputs, conditions, and outcomes. Bitcoin needs to be "wrapped" on a blockchain other than its own to achieve that.
• A single blockchain could host multiple, independent new "coins" - lets call them ERC-20 tokens. Bitcoin never needed that - the closest thing was a hardfork to Dogecoin, Litecoin, and a few others including Bitcoin Cash. 
• Decentralised Finance, like peer-to-peer exchanges, unsecured and secured loans, etc. could be run using the smart contracting off a single blockchain. This just wasn't possible with Bitcoin.
• Transactions per second are much higher than Bitcoin's 14 TPX. 

These are some of the key reasons why Ethereum is the silver to Bitcoin's gold. Ethereum made cryptocurrency work instead of just being a store of value. Despite this ability to create and support multiple new "industries" on its blockchain Ethereum's market cap has always been a fraction of Bitcoin's. (I won't dwell too much on that other than to say that Bitcoin remains the dream and posterchild for a new way of running the financial markets of the world. It has more history, more passion, more spilled blood than Ethereum does - and for this it remains at the forefront of an industry that is achieving amazing things.)  

So where to next... 

Ethereum is killing itself. The more popular it becomes the worse it is to use: the more throttled the transaction demand per second is and the more expensive the network costs to use by paying gas fees to hump the queue. (yes, thats not a spelling error)

Ethereum can't do smart money if its congested and prohibitively expensive. I think thats great! 

Maybe Ethereum will be able to transform itself with Eth 2.0 and all the new protocols its very poor governance mechanism is pushing, but thats like trying to retrofit a propeller plane with a lightspeed engine; something is bound to blow up along the way. The new build incumbents like Polkadot, Cardano, Tezos, Horizen, etc all have the benefit of standing on Ethereum's mistakes and creating a better platform for DApps. (Time will tell- shoot me down in a few years when we see where the market moves to.) 

And now, here's the thing about the thing:

Ethereum will become the silver to Bitcoin's gold; becoming a store of value, rather than programmable money. Its already the acknowledged prince in the cryptomarket. Its shitloads cheaper than Bitcoin for now. The Winklevii are shilling it as the next store of value. And as the price of Ethereum goes up, its ability to move programmable money efficiently, cheaply, instantly evaporates. Its like a 40yr old quarterback who should really retire... sometimes it best to enjoy your age and stop trying to be in the same race as the young new talent. Become the coach, the commentator, the team owner... enjoy the value that you have created and use it. 

Ethereum doesn't need to have a multiple personality disorder... let it become the Store of Value - give up the smart contracting, and invest in the other chains. You'll make more money doing that Vitalik, and spend less sleepless nights wondering how to not be threatened by the new innovators. 

P.S. Ethereum is dead. Long live Eth!