i get this question a lot and to be honest with you, it has little to do with bitcoin mining but with how the world works. the world manufacturer is China... the best chips are from Taiwan/Korea. The FW is locked by the OEM for business reasons (not saying that's good or bad it's just the way it is). It's not an easy fix. I think firmware has the best chance.... and we do have non OEM firmware out there, and Proto is working on open source FW. Not to mention the mining management software by Tether. So, things are moving in the right direction.