Block founder and CEO Jack Dorsey confirms that the company plans to create a bitcoin mining system intended to make mining easier. “We are officially building an open bitcoin mining system,” Dorsey tweeted on Thursday.
Miners validate bitcoin transactions and look for new blocks to store these transactions. As a result, they keep the Bitcoin network safe, and in return they receive a reward. This process is not exactly simple and very energy-consuming, which Block thinks is a bit outdated in 2022.
We’re officially building an open bitcoin mining system ✨ https://t.co/PaNc7gXS48
— jack⚡️ (@jack) January 13, 2022
Not easy
Mining requires a lot of energy and computer power, and it is not cheap. The computers themselves can also be really expensive because miners want the best computers. The goal of this new bitcoin mining system is to make bitcoin mining “more distributed and efficient,” tweeted Thomas Templeton, the company’s general manager of hardware.
Block wants to address a number of pain points within mining, including the availability of mining equipment, the high price, reliability and power consumption. “For most people, mining rigs (the computers) are hard to find. Once you’ve managed to track them down, they’re expensive and delivery can be unpredictable,” Templeton tweeted. “How can we make it so that anyone, anywhere, can easily buy a mining rig? We want to build something that just works. What can we simplify to make this a reality?”
Evaluation team
Square is considering building a Bitcoin mining system based on custom silicon and open source for individuals and businesses worldwide. If we do this, we’d follow our hardware wallet model: build in the open in collaboration with the community. First some thoughts and questions.
— jack⚡️ (@jack) October 15, 2021
The company is therefore developing a hardware team of engineers and software designers to assess these questions. They want to do this together with the community and open source, so everyone has access to the information that comes out of this.
It is noticeable that Dorsey has a big heart for bitcoin. After all, it’s no secret that Dorsey is a big fan and owner of digital gold. Before he suggested in October that Block (then Square) would build a mining system, Dorsey also said in August that he is trying to mine bitcoin himself.
“Mining is not open to everyone,” Dorsey tweeted in October. “Mining Bitcoin should be as easy as connecting a rig to a power source.”
