Jack Dorsey's Block develops 3-nanometer Bitcoin mining chip, aims for own mining system

Block, a digital payments firm co-founded by Jack Dorsey, has finished developing a three-nanometer Bitcoin mining chip.

The firm is now engaging with a leading global semiconductor foundry to complete the chip's design, Block wrote in a Tuesday statement. This moves the company closer to its goal of supporting decentralized mining, which will include offering standalone mining chips and its own full mining system.

"With our design showing competitive performance, we are proceeding with the full tapeout. Our mining chip will utilize the most advanced semiconductor process currently available and will deliver the performance required for mining operators of all types to survive and thrive in the fifth mining epoch (the period following the recent 4th halving of the block subsidy) and beyond," Block added in its mining build blog, which track's the firm's decentralized Bitcoin mining updates.

The fourth bitcoin halving occurred on April 19 and saw bitcoin mining reward decrease from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. 

"With a standalone mining chip, we will represent the only large, well-capitalized mining hardware vendor with such a solution. We hope this will help unlock mining system innovation and support the much-needed development of new mining system form factors and use cases," Block added.

Block

Dorsey co-founded the social media platform previously known as Twitter (now X) in 2006, as well as co-founding the mobile payments company Square in 2009. Square rebranded to Block in December 2021, stemming from a commitment toward decentralized technology and cryptocurrency, The Block previously reported.

"No matter how we grow or change, we will continue to build tools to help increase access to the economy," Dorsey said at the time.

Block sold a total of $2.52 billion worth of bitcoin to customers in the fourth quarter of 2023, a year-over-year increase of 37%, the firm said in its most recent earnings report. In addition, the firm's payment app Cash App made a $66 million profit selling bitcoin, marking a 90% increase year over year.