Thanks for your post. You say that ASIC development takes a lot of work and that these companies such as Butterfly Labs and Cointerra are not doing that? (first I just want to make sure that I'm understanding this part correctly). But doesn't the CEO of Cointerra have a architectural engineering background with Samsung chips? And him and his team also have experience working with Intel, Qualcomm, NVIDIA right? So are they helping to design the ASICS chips at all?

From your post, it seems as though you're saying that they go to these ASIC design and development companies (ie Open-Silicon) to make the ASIC card? What input do they have here? Is this ASIC company just making money off of places like Bfly and Cointerra? I'm confused because then how does one company like Cointerra get the edge over a company like Bfly when they are going to these other companies for product development?

what is this stressful "race" for the most advanced card (ie 20nm - then 16 or 14 next) that Josh Zerlan mentioned in an interview? Seems like he's saying it's his own team right? Again, I'm new. I'm just trying to point out why I'm getting confused.