7 billion people, silent BTC revolution, but just two companies producing ASICs. Why?
I think at this point the delay before anyone STARTING now would be too long for people to trust to invest in, most of the BTC/inflow of cash is already diluted into these companies. I mean, I'd do research, and I know a little about chips, but don't work in the field, and nobody's going to really trust anyone else taking their BTC for development when they'd be 'so far behind'... (even though they may still beat some of the asic companies! ;P)
Well imagine the following.
You said you know a little about chips. However, you decide to build an ASIC, and you figure something in your head, register a company, domain, website, etc.
And you start collecting money, based on an idea. And lots of it.
But when you get the money, you start to want more. And you increase the price of something that no one has actually ever seen. No one knows if it exists.
And call me Nostradamus, but I predict that they will not ship by next week. In fact I think they won't ship at all!
You can only imagine how much time would it take for these jokers to write the technical documentation.
Let's say there is some really small chance that they will ship. What if it breaks?
It took them months to create, then it will take them several more months to "repair".
I bet they did not think of that either.