Established by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Block is a payments startup that is developing its own bitcoin (BTC) mining system in an effort to gain traction in the competitive cryptocurrency mining market, the company announced on Tuesday.After working on the three-nanometer mining chip since April 2023, the company—previously known as Square—announced in a blog post that it had finished development. A top-tier international semiconductor foundry is working on the complete design, as per the article.
Additionally, Block stated that it has chosen to construct a comprehensive bitcoin mining system, which would include system design, after consulting with community members regarding the industry’s pain issues.“To identify the challenges faced by mining operators, we’ve spent a significant amount of time talking to a wide variety of bitcoin miners,” the post stated.Based on these discoveries and in line with our objective of promoting mining decentralization, we intend to provide both a stand-alone mining chip and a comprehensive mining system of our own creation.
Few companies dominate the bitcoin mining sector, with Beijing-based miner Bitmain reportedly holding about 60% of the market, according to CoinShares estimates.
“There are few serious competitors, which indicates significant potential for disruption,” said James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares.
Block announced the completion of a five-nanometer bitcoin mining chip prototype in May 2023, which is the same technology that Bitmain’s S21 mining machine uses. “This leads us to believe that 3nm chips could achieve even greater efficiencies,” he said.
Despite the fact that chip efficiency has increased significantly in recent years as demand for bitcoin has increased, Butterfill noted that the most recent halving event on April 20, which reduced the supply of new bitcoin by 50%, highlights the even greater need for faster mining speeds, lower prices, and increased reliability.