After previously announcing in October that the company is looking to build a Bitcoin mining system, Block Inc. officially announced on Thursday, January 13, that the company is working on an open Bitcoin mining infrastructure.
The new open Bitcoin mining system will be accessible to everybody, even tiny and new miners, allowing people to mine from the comfort of their own homes.
Due to the high price of Bitcoin mining technology, the mining industry is currently concentrated in the hands of a few large players. Block is making a renewed attempt to become more decentralized. As a result, the corporation has already begun employing new employees and forming a team to handle the situation.
Block’s general manager for hardware, Thompson Templeton, gave an announcement about the project’s future scope. Templeton wrote on his Twitter account:
“We want to make mining more distributed and efficient in every way, from buying, to set up, to maintenance, to mining. We’re interested because mining goes far beyond creating new bitcoin. We see it as a long-term need for a future that is fully decentralized and permissionless”.
Block Inc’s team has also begun working on consumer pain areas in order to address specific technical issues, according to the CEO.
Taking on Three Important Bitcoin Mining Challenges
- Availability: One of the most difficult issues for new Bitcoin miners is finding and purchasing mining equipment. Furthermore, the equipment is costly, and delivery are unreliable. Block Inc promises to make it simple for customers to buy mining machines at any time and from any location.
- Reliability: Issues with Bitcoin mining equipment’s functionality, as well as overheating, are on the rise. This necessitates a lengthy restart as well as a loss of mining earnings. Block Inc is also working on a solution to this problem.
- Performance: Mining rigs generate unwanted harmonics in the power grid, resulting in poor performance. This makes it too noisy to use at home. As a result, Block Inc will strive to strike a compromise between lower power usage and higher hashrates.
Block Inc is actively investigating other IP blocks (because we’re open to building a new ASIC), open-source miner firmware, and other system software products to tackle these difficulties.
