Well sure, a hypothetical could explain away almost everything.
But we can't both say that the numbers in the publicity blurb are meaningless, and then both use those numbers as the basis of our assumptions, and, on top of that, assume that the numbers in the press release (also done by marketing) are any more credible. Either these people know their numbers, or they don't. If their projections are realistic, and Ken has truthfully passed them on, where are these first-to-market 16GH chips? Obviously *someone* has been overly optimistic?
That VMC inked a deal with eASIC is not a hypothetical, unless you think eASIC is in on the scam.
That they would use 28nm Nextreme 3 is not a hypothetical
That 6 months after the first press release mentioning it, Nextreme 3 is still not being advertised or described as available, or its specifications available, is also not a hypothetical.
That eASIC would have a functional nextreme 3 process but for some reason chose not to market it, a is hypothetical I cant swallow.
Ergo, I find it impossible to come up with a plausible scenario where eASIC did not fuck up. Unless you want to believe eASIC told Ken back in august that it would take until spring 2014 before they could deliver anything, and somehow tout that as "dramatically reducing .. time-to-production".
As for shifting the blame to "Ken's design"; there is zero chance Ken had anything to do with the design. eASIC did that, cf the press release where Ken touts "The fast
design and turnaround time of eASIC Nexteme-3". More evidence is that eASIC has intellectual property concerning SHA cores and all the other components needed to produce a bitcoin miner. Since these cores are supposedly tailored for their process, why on earth would anyone reinvent the wheel? In theory its possible some third party design house used eASIC's IP and combined it into a chip design for their process, but that seems both stupid and very unlikely considering that the specifications of their nextreme 3 weren't even available at the time, if they existed at all.
Again though, Im not vouching for Ken in any way, other than for his decision at the time to contract eASIC, and looking at the facts today, blaming eASIC primarily. There might be tons of other shenanigans going on, Ken might be incompetent, an imbecile or a swindler, but that would be on top of eASIC dropping the ball. And that I would not hold over Ken's head.