Jack Dorsey’s Block Unveils Prototype of Revolutionary 5nm Bitcoin Mining Chip

Block, the financial services and technology company owned by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, has announced the completion of its new 5nm Bitcoin mining chip prototype. The chip is designed to decentralize the supply of mining rigs and promote an open-source ecosystem.

In a recent blog post, Block highlighted the technical and financial challenges associated with developing Bitcoin mining ASIC rigs, leading to an excessive concentration of Bitcoin mining of a few companies. This centralization is viewed as harmful to both miners and the Bitcoin network.

To address this issue, Block plans to make Bitcoin mining technology open source where possible. The company aims to sell standalone ASICs and other hardware components to encourage innovation and expand the Bitcoin mining hardware ecosystem. The company’s recent progress will enable experimentation with new designs, ultimately bringing more efficient and affordable Bitcoin mining chips to market.

In a strategic move, Block has purchased a large batch of ASIC chips from Intel to accelerate the development of its proprietary 3nm chip, which is expected to be the most advanced chip upon release. With this acquisition, Block can now focus its design team exclusively on cutting-edge 3nm ASIC development.

The smaller 5nm and 3nm chips allow for more transistors to fit into a silicon die of the same size, improving overall efficiency and reducing heat production. While 5nm ASIC chips have been around since 2021, no company has yet made their ASIC chip designs open source. Block’s initiative could potentially revolutionize the Bitcoin mining industry by promoting transparency and competition.