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Aren't ASICs extremely expensive to develp? The one StackExchange article I found on ASIC pricing (https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/7042/how-much
by soundwave106 9y ago
Aren't ASICs extremely expensive to develp? The one StackExchange article I found on ASIC pricing (https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/7042/how-much-does-it-cost-to-have-a-custom-asic-made https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/7042/how-muc...) seems to confirm that.
My impression is there's a significant amount in the investing class who see Bitcoin as a hyped bubble. Sure, there's Peter Thiels, but there's also people like Warren Buffett who won't touch it with a ten foot pole at the moment. (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/10/bitcoin-and-cryptocurrencies-will-come-to-a-bad-end-says-warren-buffett https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jan/10/bitcoin-a...).
You don't need ASICs per se for general blockchain technology... the main advantage of ASICs are speed of mining, something that probably won't be needed as much once the general mania pops one way or another. So an ASIC mining chip seems to me fairly vulnerable. For instance, if you just spent a million making a lot of ASIC mining chips, news like China possibly starting to crack down on mining (https://www.ft.com/content/adfe7858-f4f9-11e7-88f7-5465a6ce1a00 https://www.ft.com/content/adfe7858-f4f9-11e7-88f7-5465a6ce1...) would probably not make you happy.