We've obviously looked at this a great deal at LargeCoin. The cost of fabbing a profitable Bitcoin ASIC is $500,000. This is the cost when you use a structure ASIC solution, and there isn't any way to get it below $500,000 - believe me, we have tried.

Structured ASIC processes definitely remove a lot of the complexity of ASIC fabrication versus standard cell or full custom processes. However, you are still dealing with the fabrication of an immensely complex integrated circuit with millions of tiny little wires in it. Getting the design right so that the first batch works means spending lots of money on sophisticated software and engineering talent - and that's just not cheap.

If you want to run off a few chips in an academic process, by all means go for it. That's a great hobby level activity. However, we found through our extensive analysis that nothing short of a structured ASIC process can give you the scale and volume that you need to generate enough money from your efforts to be well compensated for the investment.