In Brief:
- Jack Dorsey revealed that the firm is moving forward with its open bitcoin mining system development plans.
- Mining rigs’ availability, performance, etc are a few of the issues the mining system aims to tackle.
- For that Block is building a team of system, ASICs, and software designers led by Afshin Rezayee.
Digital Payments firm Block’s founder, Jack Dorsey, confirmed plans that the firm is building an open bitcoin mining system.
Block’s general manager of hardware Thomas Templeton explained the details of the plan via a Twitter thread.
Block aims to make mining more distributed and efficient in every aspect from “buying, to set up, to maintenance, to mining.”
The firm believes mining is a lot more than just generating new bitcoins. Templeton stated that Block sees bitcoin mining as a long-term need for a future that is completely permissionless and decentralized.
The new system intends to tackle the issue of the availability of mining rigs.
Since the rigs are expensive and delivery becomes unpredictable, the system will find ways to make them accessible in such a manner that anyone can purchase a mining rig easily from just anywhere.
Heat dissipation and dust are the other issues Block’s bitcoin mining system plans to address as they affect the rigs’ reliability.
Templeton added that mining rigs tend to create unwanted harmonics in the power grid affecting its performance. It’s also noisy, making them too loud for home use.
Block is exploring how to strike the perfect balance between performance and other aspects, such as ensuring that the rig is efficient with low power consumption and higher hashrates.
This new system-building is being incubated within Block’s hardware team, and they are focusing on building out a core engineering team of system, ASIC, and software designers led by Afshin Rezayee.
Block also plans to hire electrical engineers, layout engineers, and analog designers for the mining system development.
Bitcoin maximalist Jack Dorsey announced that Block(previously Square) is planning to build a new bitcoin mining system last October. He added that the system will be based on custom silicon and open source for individuals and businesses worldwide. Last week Dorsey proposed a bitcoin legal defense fund for developers. The fund aims to help developers fight legal battles.
