I'm saying if they need upfront cost - they should be upfront about it!
No shame about it. Show us a working prototype and we'll get behind it. Be straight - if you need 10k per 250GH/s unit - say it. Don't go about this saying its about loyality, and peddle people FPGA that will be obsolete once it ships.
Agree.
Once thay have the money, and built the first run of 250GH/s boxes, just how tempting would it be to keep them an extra month or two for "testing". They then ship just in time for the next batch to be made, by which time the DIY ASICs are online, and 250GH/s doesn't look so good anymore.