Some deep pockets need to fund reverse engineering that chip. Surely, its worth somebody's while. Or is it?
The chips are hardly anything interesting, looks like Bitmain managed to put the dc-dc converters on-chip which is really smart, but nothing unusual. Their cooling system is basic but it works and they have settled on a frame/interface design that works well enough. Kind of like KNC, except they took the extra plunge to put power on the chips.
The problem is getting the foundry time and selling the product. Too many failures in that regard.
How much investment do you think would be needed to create a competition to Bitmain? 10, 20, 30 millions? Maybe more?
Do you think it is possible that in the near future some corporate like AMD/ATI would enter this market? Wouldn't that crush Bitmain easily?
In a previous comment a few days ago, I mentioned that Bitmain may not have a stranglehold for more than a few years.
At that moment, it was just wishful thinking. However, I've lately been digesting some more information. There have been rumors of North Korea mining bitcoin (or maybe buttcoin cash, as the Koreans seem to love). Before that, there were rumors of Russia preparing to BTC mine, and even create their own ASICs.
I don't care how wealthy Jihan is, or how much of a head start he has - he can't compete with nation-states.
Edit: That might be even worse. Imagine Kim Jong Un and Vladmir Putin controlling 85% hashing power.
I will always welcome competition even if coming from nation-states. The more of them, the more stable the equilibrium. It has to be noted that we have reached some interesting equilibrium in the nuclear powers even though any of them could create BIG CHAOS. But there is equilibrium, and it works.
Would be great if something similar would happen to Bitcoin. I don't think if any comunist country start doing it the western ones would be just pasively contemplating. No... It would be a massive hashrate explosion war. Wonder what would be the effect on price....
But I thought it was more probably that a specialised corporate (such as AMD/ATI) would recognise the demand and jump into the field. I don't really know but, wouldn't the expertise and factories they have offer a great avantage over Bitmain even if they came first into play?
Interesting times ahead anyway....
I hope for more opportunities for free coin in the future (assuming price won't crash).
Thank you Ver and Jihan! 
