Block has finished creating a new prototype of its ASIC chip. This will help them bring an “open source” Bitcoin mining machine to market faster.
Block, a company owned by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, has finished designing a prototype for a new Bitcoin mining chip that uses 5nm technology. The company claims that this chip is important for making Bitcoin mining more decentralized.
Block, a financial services and technology company owned by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, said that designing Bitcoin mining ASIC rigs is difficult both technically and financially. As a result, only a few companies have control over the custom bitcoin mining silicon, which centralizes the mining process. This centralization is harmful to both miners and the Bitcoin network. In a blog post on April 28, Block explained that it has completed the prototype design of a new five-nanometre (5nm) Bitcoin mining chip that could decentralize the supply of Bitcoin mining rigs.
We have an update on our mining initiative. This one is about ASICshttps://t.co/bJOM9YNxfl
— Thomas Templeton (@TempletonThomas) April 28, 2023
The company based in San Francisco, plans to make Bitcoin mining technology open source by selling ASICs and other hardware components to boost innovation and maximize the size of the Bitcoin mining hardware ecosystem. This will help to decentralize the supply of Bitcoin mining rigs, as currently there is too much concentration in the hands of a few companies. The company aims to make Bitcoin mining technology more accessible and beneficial for both miners and the Bitcoin network.
The company Block has bought a batch of ASIC chips from Intel to speed up the development of their new Bitcoin mining chip. They have been working on designing a prototype ASIC chip for Bitcoin mining and plan to bring it to market. By making Bitcoin mining technology “open source,” they aim to sell hardware components to optimize innovation and expand the Bitcoin mining ecosystem. With the purchase of the ASIC chips, they hope to experiment with new designs and create more affordable and efficient chips.
Block, the company owned by Jack Dorsey, recently purchased a significant amount of ASIC chips from Intel in order to speed up the development of their own proprietary 3nm chip. This purchase was made after Intel announced that it would stop taking new orders for its Blockscale 1000 Series ASICs by Oct. 20 and end shipping in April 2024 to reduce costs. Block believes that its new chip, upon release, will be the most advanced chip available. They hope that these recent developments will help bring more efficient and affordable Bitcoin mining chips to the market.
“Block stated that with the acquisition of a large batch of ASIC chips from Intel, its design team can now solely focus on developing cutting-edge three-nanometer ASICs”.
A nanometer is a very small unit of measurement. It is about the same size as two silicon atoms. When the size of parts of the chips becomes smaller, more transistors can fit into the same space. This helps to make the chips more efficient and produce less heat. The electric current doesn’t have to travel as far in the circuit, making the calculations faster and using less energy.
It’s important to mention that 5-nanometer ASIC chips have been available for some time now, with the first 5nm ASIC being introduced in 2021 by a Chinese mining company called Canaan. Presently, most Bitcoin mining ASICs operate using 5nm chips. However, no company has made their ASIC chip designs available for free use by others.
