Very large companies have a huge advantage over people who are buying miners on a "retail" level. The customers do not have any power against the manufacturers when they decide to delay shipment even when they promised an earlier shipping date.
Yes, the customers have the power to be non-customers of businesses that engage in crappy business practices. Whining to mommy government almost always makes problems worse, not better.
The network as a whole suffers when a manufacturer mines with customer equipment as the difficulty is higher as a result (the manufacturer is able to produce more miners with zero risk to themselves). This also reduces overall confidence in bitcoin
The _network_ is not harmed in the slightest. Greater difficulty is good for the network - it reflects additional hashing power that a new entrant would need to acquire in order to 51% the network. This is reflected in additional confidence, not less.
Sure, it's bad for individual miners. Too bad. I guess those miners should have done their due diligence before throwing their money at empty promises.
It's not as if anyone ordering within the last two years or so did not have ample evidence that BFL was not going to meet their target ship dates.
Let's keep our eye on the ball here. My comments are solely directed against the idea that government should:
- make new laws preventing manufacturers from mining
- make new laws for price controls
How the hell would that even work in a global industry? Ludicrous!