Quote from: Nathan047 on April 10, 2018, 02:29:30 PM

Quote from: smooth on April 09, 2018, 07:04:34 PM

there are Ethereum ASICs announced and being sold to customers (but not shipped). It is very much the same situation.

So, there's a chance that they are being produced and secretly sold to a small selection of buyers? Sounds to me like this is bordering conspiracy theory territory, but then again weirder things have happened.

Consider the position of an ASIC system builder. If their rigs are profitable to operate why would they deliver them to customers? The only reason would be to nourish guanxi. Sales are all to the good - cash in hand being king - but deferring delivery on those sales means the bulk of the mining reward on that hardware can be earned in a few weeks or days, and the hardware sold at the high early price but delivered with much less ROI later in the hardware cycle.

I mean, it would be strange if it was not being done, since it would de-optimize the producers ROI. Impetus to deliver to customers only arises when a competitor begins selling, driving the rig price down, and/or crashes your reward share.

In any case, it is not a conspiracy unless multiple actors collude for an unlawful purpose. Nothing to see here then; move along.