The early history of ethereum was up for discussion at an event debuting a new Quartz video series highlighting the potential of blockchain this week.

There, Quartz editor-in-chief Kevin Delaney asked one of the protocol's co-inventors, Joseph Lubin: When ether first went on the open market in 2015, "Was that technically an ICO?"

Perhaps a nod to the increasing scrutiny around the funding model, which has raised more than $2 billion for early-stage projects, Lubin dodged the question.

"We don't like the term ICO. It sounds too much like 'IPO,'" he explained.

The founder of blockchain development firm ConsenSys, Lubin went on to note that the use of the term (and similar investment language) tends to attract attention from regulators.

Yet, the conversation, taking place at Retro Report's offices in New York, as a preview of a series of films the two news organizations have produced together, was broader in scope.

Elsewhere, Lubin acknowledged that there’s a lot of speculators in the cryptocurrency market, but that his company is trying not to get caught up in that aspect of the industry.