Block, a financial services and technology company owned by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, has completed the prototype design of its new 5nm Bitcoin mining chip. The company claims that the chip is essential for decentralizing the supply of Bitcoin mining rigs. In an April 28 blog post, Block explained that creating Bitcoin mining ASIC rigs is both financially and technically challenging, leading to excessive concentration of custom Bitcoin mining silicon in the hands of a few companies.
Promoting Open Source Bitcoin Mining Technology
Block considers this centralization harmful to both miners and the Bitcoin network. The San Francisco-based company plans to make Bitcoin mining technology “open source” where possible by selling standalone ASICs and other hardware components to “optimize innovation and maximize the size of the Bitcoin mining hardware ecosystem.”
Accelerating Development of Efficient and Affordable Chips
Block’s efforts over the past few months will enable it to experiment with new designs and help bring more efficient and affordable Bitcoin mining chips to the market. The company has purchased a large batch of ASIC chips from Intel to fast-track this development. Intel announced on April 18 that it would stop taking new orders for its Blockscale 1000 Series ASICs by October 20 and end shipping in April 2024 as part of cost-cutting measures. Block believes the intake of ASICs from Intel will accelerate the development of its proprietary 3nm chip, which it claims would be the most advanced chip upon its release.
The Advantages of Smaller ASIC Chips
Smaller ASIC chips, such as the 5nm chips developed by Block, allow for more transistors to fit into a silicon die of the same size. By reducing the overall size, the electric current travels a shorter distance in the circuit to perform a calculation, improving overall efficiency and decreasing the amount of heat produced. It’s worth noting that 5nm ASIC chips have been around since 2021, with the earliest 5nm ASIC released by Chinese mining firm Canaan. Most Bitcoin mining ASICs currently run on 5nm chips, but no company has made their ASIC chip designs open source.
