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Comment by microtherion | Hacker News Reader

> The best BTC ASIC miners on the open market are all sold out and backordered for months [...]

But in that case, why don't ASIC manufacturers sell to the highest bidder and let mining companies bid up prices?

If the barrier to entry is in ASIC manufacturing, why don't the manufacturers capture the excess profit, instead of the miners?

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In the previous bubble, there was a manufacturer that would 'test' or 'burn in' the miner until it became unprofitable to run and then they'd ship it to you. They'd get paid twice.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/bitcoin-mining-company-...

They do. The ASIC miners are placed on pre-order about two months in advance at a price reflective of the current expected mining output. With a healthy secondary market.

Selling pickaxes vs gold mining. One is quite a bit less risky than the other.

The question was, why don't the pickaxe manufacturers charge more, since there's an axe shortage. Maybe they will, when they finally get around to filling all those orders. Or maybe they're just trying not to alienate their core market?

Yeah, it does look bad if the price is so high that it's literally impossible for miners to profit.

They would not have to set extortionate prices. They simply could auction off whatever supply they produce to the highest bidder. With a market as rife with… optimists as cryptocurrencies are, there's a good chance they could capture more than 100% of the profits.

It seems to me that bitcoin mining should be about as purely economic a business as there is. It's not like their clients would not abolish the ASIC manufacturers as soon as their hardware is no longer cost effective.

Right, but there was never a time during the Gold Rush where there was a shortage of pickaxes.

A modern goldmine needs more sophisticated equipment to extract what gold is there. It’s not a perfect analogy but I think it is very close

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