While i do support terracoin i think the issue of someone poining asics at the network and thrus forcing up the difficulty of a reletively new coin shows a major flaw in most alt-coin designs - using the same algorythm as bitcoin, imho any alt coin that wants to stand the test of time and actually be taken seriously is going to need a difference algo - take litecoin as the perfect example, different algo and it's followed the same mining evolution as bitcoin.
First CPU, now GPU - next someone will develope an FPGA and eventually it will probably go ASIC - this is how it should be. it shouldnt run the risk of being killed off in a matter of days because someone pointed a high end mining device at it.
The lesson i think that should be learned is that now ASIC's are out there, if you want a serious alt-coin then dont use the same algo as someone else.
Well the thing is, when the hash rate gets more stable, we actually WANT the ASICs out there to mine the chain. The problem right now is figuring out how to accomodate ASIC's leaving the chain without unfairly penalising the rest of us. ASIC's provide security and strength, they are really very good- we just need to figure out how to deal with them in the bootstrap phase of a coin. Once we get past this, (or once there are more asics in the world, AHEM BFL) the hash rate will be more uniform and this won't be an issue anymore and the coin will be secured.
Growing pains, to say the least.