Block CEO Jack Dorsey building an "open bitcoin mining system"

Block, formerly Square is "officially building an open bitcoin mining system", CEO Jack Dorsey recently revealed in a Twitter thread. Three months ago, in October 2021, the financial services firm had hinted at the possibility of building such a system

This was in response to a tweet by Thomas Templeton, Block's general manager of hardware. Working on a "low-maintenance, affordable bitcoin mining rig for everyday customers that are also quiet enough to be used at home", Templeton also highlighted the need for reliable, everyday mining rigs, stating that they become "non-functional almost daily, requiring a time-consuming reboot.

Furthermore, Templeton stressed the need for making mining more universal, accessible, and energy-efficient than current choices by creating a system based on custom silicon and open-source, given that mining goes far beyond creating new bitcoin.

He tweeted, "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".