If they change to ASIC and bitmain can use their recently launched cryptonight ASIC to secure the network, i guess its not a bad idea at all.
PS: I dont hold any SUMO.
It's a very smart decision and signs of vision for future and good management decisions. Of course you'll upset all the hobbyist GPU miners but they have plenty of other coins to work at. We'll tell in a couple of years if ASICs were a bad thing for crypto networks ...
I like using the coin for transactiins so I want all the best for it. If experts think that using ASICs is the best option, that's good for me. As a hobbyist miner I don't have a clue about what is better, GPUs or ASICs.
It's not hashrate that secures a network it's decentalization.
If the hashrate is sky high yet controlled by one entity it's easy to 51% attack that network. If instead you have low hashrate but in disparate places it will be hard to attack it, esepcially if high hashrate devices cannot mine.
The monero network for example has 1/3rd of its peak hashrate yet is much more secured. No one entity is controlling its hashrate (like before) and there is not enough rented power to mount an attack to it.
The only way to attack the monero network for relatively cheap is to be the owner of one of its biggest pools and then *add* several million worth of equipment to your pool and then attack it. It's almost impossible.
By comparison all you need to attack bitcoin (for example) is to brick most of its miners via this method or similar:
https://www.antbleed.com and proceed to attack.
Asic miners is the gaping hole in blockchains' security. Unless bitcoin becomes asic resistant it will never be secure from a technical standpoint. It is only secure from a game theoretical stand point... for the rime being.
Sumokoin just killed itself.
Yes, asic's are a curse that the cryptoworld should do what it can to get rid of.