Block, the financial services and technology firm founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, has announced the completion of the prototype design of its new five-nanometer (5nm) Bitcoin mining chip, which it believes will be critical to decentralizing the supply of Bitcoin mining rigs.
According to a blog post published on April 28, Block explained that developing the production of Bitcoin mining ASIC rigs is technically and financially difficult, resulting in a concentration of bespoke Bitcoin mining silicon in the hands of a few businesses. This concentration is harmful to both miners and the Bitcoin network as a whole.
However, Block intends to “open source” Bitcoin mining technology. They plan to do this by disseminating individual ASICs and other hardware parts to “optimize innovation and maximize the size of the Bitcoin’s mining equipment industry.” Moreover, the efforts made in recent months will allow the business to experiment with new designs and build more efficient and cost-effective Bitcoin mining chips.
Intel Chips Help Block Fast-Track Development Push
Block had purchased a large batch of ASIC chips from Intel to fast-track this development push. On April 18, Intel said that, as part of its cost-cutting measures, it would cease taking additional orders for its Blockscale 1000 Series ASICs by October 20 and will cease delivery in April 2024.
Intel’s enormous input of ASICs will aid in creating Block’s proprietary 3nm processor. The company claims that it will be the most sophisticated semiconductor to date upon its release.
Block aims to reduce the concentration of custom Bitcoin mining silicon. In the process, it hopes to improve the overall efficiency and affordability of Bitcoin mining rigs. The company’s design team will now focus exclusively on cutting-edge 3nm ASIC development.
One nanometer (1nm) equals the width of two silicon atoms. More transistors fit into a silicon die of the same size as chip components grow smaller. Reducing the overall size of the circuit enhances overall efficiency. The electric current has to travel a shorter distance in the circuit to complete a calculation. This reduces the amount of heat produced.
Furthermore, Canaan, a Chinese mining company, debuted the first 5nm ASIC chip in 2021, marking the availability of these chips for some time. 5nm processors now form the basis for most Bitcoin mining ASICs.
An “application-specific integrated circuit” (ASIC) refers to a specialized computerized device that is optimized to complete a single computational function. People commonly use ASICs for mining proof-of-work cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
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