A mining COOP that will be investing in ASIC is an intriguing idea.
A COOP is still a business, the main difference is it wholly owned by the employees. In this case, there is not really going to be any direct stakeholder activity in the business.
Perhaps COOP is the wrong term. It seems to me, that you want to create an investment pool that distributes all profits to the stakeholders with no principal investor. In reality only you would be doing the actual work and you would retain possession of all the assets.
Looks more like a normal business structure with the CEO taking a token salary (Like CEO's that have a $1 salary), and having heavy investments in the business. The work they do for the business is rewarded by increased dividends and share value, and in most cases they get a bonus in the form of more shares.
In any case, whatever structure you base this on, you need to pay yourself something for all the work you will do. Your investors are not going to be doing any of actual work, and unlike the $1 CEO, this is a start-up.
We might not see the first ASIC hit the general public for a year.As of now we only have a announcement that has not been verified on the BFL website itself.
I also have to agree in sorts with the idea that it is early for and ASIC investment, however, temper the early investments in the business by investing the BTC until you can order the equipment.
Take the BTC you get from now until you can order and invest it (preferably something low risk, maybe split between low and medium risk) in a bond(s) that pays dividends regularly. Split the dividends between the business and investors. That way the investors are seeing some pay back right away and the business fund will grow before the first ASIC is ordered.
The only tricky part is knowing when to start selling off the bonds to have the liquidity in place to order the ASIC.
I think you will get a much better response, if you offer per-order investors some kind of return beforehand. Just leaving BTC sitting and waiting for a product to become available kind of makes people a bit nervous.
Anyway, that's my 2cents, take it or leave it.
Great Idea!!!! Just refine it a bit and I may invest.