In January, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who had left the leadership of the social network to devote himself body and soul to his new blockchain company Block (formerly Square), announced that the company was working on a new project involving open source ASICs for Bitcoin mining.
We’re officially building an open bitcoin mining system ✨ https://t.co/PaNc7gXS48
— jack (@jack) January 13, 2022
Summary
Open source Bitcoin mining from Jack Dorsey’s Block company
Now everything would be ready to sell the first machines to mine Bitcoin in a completely decentralized manner.
An ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) is a microchip custom-designed for a particular use.
In this case, Block aims to build an ASIC specifically for Bitcoin mining.
Thomas Templeton, Block’s hardware director, wrote in January:
“We want to make mining more distributed and efficient in every way, from buying, to set up, to maintenance, to mining. We’re interested because mining goes far beyond creating new bitcoin. We see it as a long-term need for a future that is fully decentralized and permissionless”.
Mission and vision of the Block company
Block’s new Bitcoin mining system aims to improve three aspects of mining: availability, reliability and performance.
The goal is to make mining rigs easier to find and buy, while ensuring a consistent delivery experience.
In a tweet on 15 October, when he first launched the idea, Dorsey had written that:
“Mining needs to be more distributed. The more decentralized this is, the more resilient the Bitcoin network becomes”.
5/Mining isn’t accessible to everyone. Bitcoin mining should be as easy as plugging a rig into a power source. There isn’t enough incentive today for individuals to overcome the complexity of running a miner for themselves. What are the biggest barriers for people running miners?
— jack (@jack) October 15, 2021
According to these rumours, the company is now almost ready to launch the first new machines. However, this news has yet to be confirmed.
Block’s project from the outset seemed to take much longer. It is more likely that this is an initial test that will provide confirmation of the soundness of the research and development process carried out by Block in recent months.
