While i do support terracoin i think the issue of someone poining asics at the network and thrus forcing up the difficulty of a reletively new coin shows a major flaw in most alt-coin designs - using the same algorythm as bitcoin, imho any alt coin that wants to stand the test of time and actually be taken seriously is going to need a difference algo - take litecoin as the perfect example, different algo and it's followed the same mining evolution as bitcoin.
First CPU, now GPU - next someone will develope an FPGA and eventually it will probably go ASIC - this is how it should be. it shouldnt run the risk of being killed off in a matter of days because someone pointed a high end mining device at it.
The lesson i think that should be learned is that now ASIC's are out there, if you want a serious alt-coin then dont use the same algo as someone else.
Well the thing is, when the hash rate gets more stable, we actually WANT the ASICs out there to mine the chain. The problem right now is figuring out how to accomodate ASIC's leaving the chain without unfairly penalising the rest of us. ASIC's provide security and strength, they are really very good- we just need to figure out how to deal with them in the bootstrap phase of a coin. Once we get past this, (or once there are more asics in the world, AHEM BFL) the hash rate will be more uniform and this won't be an issue anymore and the coin will be secured.
Growing pains, to say the least.
i believe asics provide strength to bitcoin because of its large network hasrate to begin with, but with a smaller coin unfortunatly it causes a massive increase in the difficulty and causes problems - whereby i can image a lot of the smaller hobby miners - whom provide greater security and stability to a new coin - leave.
i see more stability in a thousand single graphics cards mining away getting a fair slice of the pie than half a dozan guys with asics taking over the whole network.
while i can see a large number of people holding high powered mining rigs on a massive network as a bonus, i cant see how it would be good for a small alt coin, i mean if someone had pointed an asic at a new coin the first day it launched then left with a masive difficulty increase remaining in there wake then the larger number of smaller guys are going to be put off by only getting 1 or 2 coins for 24 hour mining with there cards, given that said alt coin is nowhere near as valuble as bitcoin it leaves very little incentive to actually mine it.
a more decentralised coin is for me, having many many people chipping in, not a few people taking over.
if you want to prevent asics from hopping the pool and making a mess of things then change the algo and in the future should the coin stand the test of time its own brand of asics will come, trying to force the evolution of mining onto something will only ruin it for the majority of people whom you need for the coins survival.