I appreciate what you are saying, but the more legitimate offerings want to build a company and be around for the longer term. Not get as much cash as possible, perform a lacklustre effort on production subsequent to raising funds and then disappear. The incentive is establishing a customer base and repeat business. If you upset your investors they tend not to reinvest. There's not too many that would chance Butterfly Labs a second time around after the ordeal they have suffered.
With that in mind any VC will not necessarily be concerned about the long term customer satisfaction if it's to fulfil one run, but when you have customers funds, and they are relying on you, if you deliver, you almost certainly have established repeat custom...
Bitfury still requires pre-orders, but he has performed an outstanding job of standing on his own two feet and proving his design delivers! Every company that takes a step in the right direction is treading in virgin ground here and is creating benchmarks future competitors are expected to meet as a necessity.
I actually prefer the pre-order model. I mean, it allows savvy
investors to make their decision on who to pre-fund based on their own ability to evaluate technical proposals. For example, I decided to go with Avalon after they'd managed to at least demo a working unit (proving they weren't total vaporware). And so far it's paid off great.
That also means of course I'm not in the position of all these people who have been completely burned by BFL and loath the idea of pre-orders.
The way KnC presented themselves made me think that they'd be a good deal as well.
And here's the thing, remember, the less risk you take
the less reward you get. Look at the price difference between batch 1, batch 2 and batch 3 Avalons. It went from $1,200 to $1,500 to something like $7k. People buying batch 1 were taking a blind risk, people buying batch 2 knew Avalon could at least ship demo units. And people buying batch 3 knew that Avalon could deliver (at least
most of their orders) in a somewhat timely manner.
The lowest risk are things like USB erupters. You know you'll get your unit and you'll get it on time. But the ROI is basically not going to happen unless either bitcoins go way up or just ignore the electrical costs (which is easy when it's probably only a few dollars a month)
KnC's prices were ridiculously cheap compared to their competition, there's a reason for that: if they made their offer low enough that profitability would basically be guaranteed if they delivered then they would get funded for sure. If they charged high prices, people not buy in - and they'd not get funded.
So basically people want ASIC makers to shoulder all the risk, and then charge reasonable prices that allow miners to get ROI are living in fantasy land.
I'm just hoping KnC keeps rewarding it's initial customers, rather then jacking up their prices in the future.
