If their time frame weren't a year out on the Obelisk miner they would have the kind of interest they were hoping for. It is just way too much lead time to get people willing to throw a lot of money at this. They would have the interest and the funding for this if the runway were shorter. People are looking, but with good reason they are holding back.
Yeah...now that they have everyones attention they could re-consider all this miner stuff for now..punt it into 2017 w/ new miner
Well they could refund ...thus refunding would further prove they are legit and help their cause and coin project
refunding ..folks $$$ now for the oblisk and instead get their house in order. Then if they do fund a miner..fund it not as a seacoin pet project
but as a blake2 protocol (I think it is) and seacoin miner....asic miner first on that protocol......a way to move siacoin 2nd
other devs would have options to make blake2 protocol coins (again I think that is the protocol) expand the universe
is seacoins on the blake2 protocol ..are being sold for fund/support the open cloud project on storage...well the other coins would not effect
their efforts that much imho anyway....likely it would expand the interest in their efforts and hardware
but a refund and a miner in the blake2 protocol might be a way to punt and hedge w/o losing their momentum BEFORE they cash out the $$$ for chips etc
and miners
can't always climb the mountain on the first route choice
my 2c worth