Square CEO Jack Dorsey revealed in October that the financial services company (now rebranded Block) is “considering establishing a Bitcoin mining infrastructure.” Three months later and those considerations have become reality.
“We’re officially building an open bitcoin mining system,” Dorsey tweeted today in response to a tweet thread from Block General Manager of hardware Thomas Templeton.
Block is developing a low-maintenance, low-cost Bitcoin mining equipment for everyday users that is also quiet enough to be operated at home, according to Templeton. Templeton said of mining rigs being unreliable and is quoted to have said,, “Almost every day, they become unusable, necessitating a lengthy restart. We want to create a system that is simple to use.”
Block claims it will not do it alone, but it is assembling a team that comprises systems and software engineers as well as ASIC mining experts.
“We are interested in performance and open-source and our own elegant system integration ideas,” he wrote.
Dorsey previously stated that the company may assist in the development of a more energy-efficient mining method than is now available. In October, he tweeted, “Energy is a system-level problem requiring innovation in silicon, software, and integration.”
Apart from Dorsey’s October hint, Block’s foray into Bitcoin hardware seems unsurprising. Its 45-year-old CEO is a Bitcoin maximalist who previously stated that if Bitcoin needed him more, he would step down from his CEO positions. In June 2021, he told attendees at Bitcoin Miami, “I don’t think there’s anything more important in my life to work on.” Dorsey did, in fact, resign as Twitter’s CEO in November [year], allowing him to devote more time to Square.
Square changed its name to Block in a couple of days, symbolizing the blockchain technology that underpins Bitcoin. Square’s Cash App, which enables Bitcoin purchases, has also increased its marketing efforts, reaching new audiences with celebrity BTC giveaways on Instagram and Twitter, to celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow.
Square isn’t solely dedicated to Bitcoin mining. Its TBD section published a white paper proposing a decentralized exchange for trading Bitcoin and fiat currency in mid-November. Cash App also announced this week that it would begin integrating with the Bitcoin Lightning Network, which allows users to transmit Bitcoin at a cheaper transaction cost.