We entered the Bitcoin environment when PFlops of the network were around 600.  It was an absolute certainty that the authenticity of the store of value everyone called Bitcoin was incorruptible.

That same network is now 39,000,000 PFlops.  Most participants did not want the aggravating circumstance to purchase Bitcoin and instead decided to mine it.  99% of the hashing power out there is completely irrelevant to the stability of the network which, as I said was untouchable at 600 PFlops.  However the arms race began.

To our knowledge unless you have created some kind of geothermal electricity and housed your rigs in the Norweigan Arctic while your best friend owned a chip foundry in China operated with one million prisoners, there is no way for mining to be profitable.

There are some indisputable laws of the universe.  Gravity, the speed of light, and we will say Moore's Law.  We simply could not double the rate of transistors fast enough to satisfy the appetite to mine Bitcoin and now the weight of those huge pieces of infrastructure must collapse.  In effect we personally see it as a confidence boost that illustrates the longevity of Bitcoin.  Economics will reign in the rate of growth of the network and prevent centralization of mining from falling into a few hands.  The risk is simply to great for these enterprises to consider.  When a graph of the exponential growth of the network is overlayed on the rigid two year stair-step of Moore's Law one can clearly see where things went awry.  Instead the risk will be redistributed over the many.  Quite an astounding consequence of design.

Unfortunately this is the first time this phenomenon has been regarded and so many of these players have been blindsided unable to comprehend what has happened.  For the rest of us the fall out is regarded in the price but we are comforted to know the network has a built in mechanism where even limits exist for mining to keep everything in balance.