Frankly, I don't think about counterfeit chips. If I did, and had a meaningful way to determine a counterfeit, then I'd not buy products with them. But there's

Frankly, I don't think about counterfeit chips. If I did, and had a meaningful way to determine a counterfeit, then I'd not buy products with them. But there's no way for an end-user to do this. And since they're the ones being punished by the bricking (any supply chain movement is a second-order effect driven by upset customers), and since I lack the technical capacity to identify a knock-off, then my most rational course of action is to avoid anything that might be counterfeit . . . by insisting on a totally different chip. Not having FTDI in your design is a feature. And that's easily checked by plugging the device into a USB port and looking at the VID/PID. FTDI has a death wish.