Do we know who exactly created these ASICs during the big hash run up during 2019-Jan to 2019-Mar?
And why would they create these ASICs when they know for a fact that the Monero community would easily fork the algorithm to brick all of their ASICs?
It just doesn't seem to make sense why they would spend so much money to make these ASICs and have them bricked.
Do we know who exactly created these ASICs during the big hash run up during 2019-Jan to 2019-Mar?
Not for sure, but it was leaked on IRC to be Innosilicon.
And why would they create these ASICs when they know for a fact that the Monero community would easily fork the algorithm to brick all of their ASICs?
Well it's a cat-and-mouse game. They make money while they work and they hope the algorithm tweaks, when they come, don't require many changes to their hardware. They also dump bricked ASICs on the market, which some people obviously buy. Any coins forked from Monero that don't also update their algorithms can be mined with these Monero-bricked ASICs.
Do we know who exactly created these asics during the big hash run up during 2019-Jan to 2019-Mar?
It's hard to say, but the names are the usual known.
And why would they create these asics, when they know for a fact that the monero community would easily fork the algo to brick all of their asics. It just doesn't make sense why they would spend so much money to make these ASICS and have them bricked.
Because in the time of a few months they pay back their expenses and earn enough money. Furthermore, it is very likely that this time is about FPGA rather than ASIC. In this case, they will be reprogrammed after the fork to run the new algorithm and to be operative again.
