By
Tolu Ajiboye
April 23rd, 2024
Dorsey believes that Bitcoin mining should be as easy as plugging a rig into a power source.
Payments company Block, formerly known as Square Inc, has unveiled its plan for its bitcoin mining system. The general manager for hardware, Thomas Templeton, revealed this in a series of tweets on Wednesday. Likewise, Jack Dorsey confirmed this in his tweet on Thursday.
We’re officially building an open bitcoin mining system ✨ https://t.co/PaNc7gXS48
— jack (@jack) January 13, 2022
Templeton noted that the goal was to make the bitcoin mining process more efficient and distributed. More than just creating new bitcoins, Templeton believes that making the mining process more accessible to all will play a huge role in a decentralized and permissionless future.
This is similar to a comment made by Jack Dorsey in October. The former Twitter CEO had said that “Mining needs to be more distributed. The more decentralized this is, the more resilient the bitcoin network becomes.” Dorsey believes that Bitcoin mining should be as easy as plugging a rig into a power source.
ASICs Critical to the New Bitcoin Mining System
Using mining rigs, the vision of a decentralized mining process remains difficult. Moreso, the rigs are expensive, difficult to move, and their use is riddled with problems including heat dissipation, dust, time-consuming reboot, and noise.
To solve this problem, Block hopes to design more ASICs. Block’s hardware team led by Afshin Rezayee has been tasked with doing this. Additionally, the company recently advertised the role of customer digital design lead on Linkedin fueling rumors about its intention. The custom digital design lead will assist in the silicon validation of the ASIC and its prototype.
Beyond democratizing the mining process, ASICs will help improve user experience and the reliability of the bitcoin mining process.
“We want to build something that just works. What can we do to simplify this?” he tweeted.
BTC Mining in the United States
Since dethroning China in bitcoin mining, the United States has the highest hash rate in the world followed by Kazakhstan. This has made the country a haven for bitcoin miners. Not that this is surprising; the US has several alternative energy sources that are useful.
While Washington State is a hub for hydro-powered mining farms. New York produces the most hydroelectric power and is driving for a 100% carbon-free electricity goal. Also, Texas is also expanding on its alternative power sources investing more in solar and wind power.
When you add political and geographical stability to this, it becomes obvious why the United States remains a top destination for bitcoin miners
At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at $42,605.42 according to CoinMarketCap.