Matrix proponents would do well to learn from what is happening to Firefox and Mozilla.
Element do 90% of the development in the Matrix ecosystem - including the only server that can run at scale (I wont say "work") and the only homeserver designed to replace it (not production ready).
If Element were to come on hard times (as they have in the past, with near disastrous results), Matrix will simply fold.
@kline What do you suggest as alternative for a potentially struggling company? No company?
So I have seen tons of really brilliant projects that were abandoned simply because the developer wasn't able to continue working like a slave to satisfy continuous stream of demands from bastard users who didn't give a fuck to even say "thanks", not to mention donate $2 pm to a project they use and benefit from on daily basis.
Therefore, whenever I see a project I use and like and don't want it to disappear, I just start donating to it, using any means available.
So the OpenSSL code gradually went into a legacy nightmare and the wake up call was series of terrible vulnerabilities back in 2010's. So a number of "phew, you guys write crap code, let me show you how it's done" projects was spun off, some of them funded by corporations, who previously didn't give a fuck about the code because - you guessed it, they could have it for free.