Authored by Turner Wright via CoinTelegraph.com,
Payments firm Block, formerly known as Square, has announced plans to develop a Bitcoin mining system in response to challenges faced by mining operators.
In an April 23 blog post, Block said it had completed development of a three-nanometer chip used for BTC mining, which led to the firm announcing a “full Bitcoin mining system.”
Block — then Square — CEO Jack Dorsey suggested a collaborative approach to decentralize Bitcoin mining in October 2021.
“We’ve spent a significant amount of time talking to a wide variety of bitcoin miners to identify the challenges faced by mining operators,” said Block.
“Building on these insights and pursuant to our goal of supporting mining decentralization, we plan to offer both a standalone mining chip as well as a full mining system of our own design.”
Source: Jack Dorsey
Block completed a prototype design of a five-nanometer BTC mining chip in May 2023, claiming at the time the centralization of chip development in the hands of a few companies was harmful to the ecosystem.
The firm called on the mining community to provide additional feedback for the system, asking for comments on challenges it faced in purchasing miners, maintenance, transparency and software issues.
Intel announced in 2023 that it planned to end shipping for its Blockscale 1000 Series ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) mining chips in April as part of cost-cutting measures.
Such chips are often used for mining proof-of-work cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin.
The Bitcoin halving on April 19 cut the block reward for miners from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.
The event will likely shake up the market as miners compete for fewer rewards for the same work until the next halving, expected in another four years.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 04/24/2024 – 08:50
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Tyler Durden
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://zerohedge.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.