CN coins need a hard fork to change the algo or the CN algo will gonna die for gpu mining.
I agree that bitmain wants to compromize the main feature of crypto currencies by centralizing the power.
It's an even bigger nail in the coffin of CPU mining, since cn is one of the only profitable algos left there.
But either way, yes. If the ASICs can keep up with forks
They won't.
It takes MONTHS to redesign an ASIC, get it validated, then get it into a production que.
They might TRY to do so once or twice, but I bet they fail and give up very quickly if they DO try that.
it will be interesting to see the first alt coin to hardfork and invalidate asics. either way the asic manufacture will have made their money. of course the ones left holding the bag will be all the buyers of bricked miners. that kind of move may be a deterrent to bitmain and other manufacturers who have little regard for the ecosystems that they enter. it may force the manufactures to be more participant in the various communities as opposed to invaders.