Traditional wisdom says that price does not follow difficulty.  If anything, it is the other way round and difficulty follows price as mining becomes more lucrative.

So why has the somewhat bearish market of the last couple of months seen not only the highest difficulties on record, but also the largest difficulty jumps?

Is the difficulty lagging behind the price? and if so, is the whole ASIC mining scene going to come tumbling down as people realize they have been scammed with effectively useless devices for which they will never recover their initial investment?

Discuss...