Core Scientific and Block develop new generation of Bitcoin mining hardware

Co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey's global technology company Block has focused primarily on financial services, for example with Square for businesses, Cash App for consumers and TIDAL for artists.

However, the company also devotes a small percentage of its resources to Bitcoin-only projects and products and has various plans with a focus on Bitcoin. Block employs a special Proto team for this purpose, which has already introduced a mining development kit and its own hashboard, as well as the Bitcoin hardware wallet Bitkey. Block has also announced its own miner model with revolutionary 3-nanometer mining chips, which were also developed by the Proto team.

In a press release, Block has now announced that the Bitcoin mining company Core Scientific is the first company to acquire this special ASIC technology and is working together with Block on the new miner model.

According to the statement, Block plans to deliver the new 3-nanometer ASIC chips with a total performance of approximately 15 exahash per second (EH/s) to Core Scientific, which will be integrated into Core Scientific's advanced infrastructure. The agreement includes an option for additional hash rate volume and is one of the largest ASIC deals in the industry. The two companies expect it to not only significantly grow hashrate performance and optimize Core Scientific's efficiency, reliability and uptime, but also create new opportunities to democratize and decentralize the entire Bitcoin mining ecosystem.

We have been working closely with the team at Block to develop the next generation of mining technology that not only supports our plans for significant hashrate growth within our existing infrastructure, but also provides more mining options for all miners. Together, Block and Core Scientific are working to define a new paradigm for scaled Bitcoin mining that provides important operational benefits while contributing to the longevity and vitality of the Bitcoin network.
_{Russell Cann, Chief Development Officer of Core Scientific, on 𝕏}

This agreement is a good example of how we envision our mining products driving the advancement and decentralization of the mining industry.
_{Thomas Templeton, Head of the Proto team at Block, in the statement}

Around the advanced ASIC chips and mining tools, Block's Proto team, in collaboration with Core Scientific and ePIC Blockchain Technologies, is also developing a modular mining platform that will offer advantages over existing mining systems, such as simplifying infrastructure requirements and optimizing the use of space and operational resources. This should enable third parties to "develop customized solutions using Proto's mining chips", according to the statement.

In order to make the mining hardware manufacturers more diverse and the new mining chips available to all interested parties and projects of different types and sizes, the focus is on the open source character, transparency and cooperation with the mining community. The main goal is to promote innovation, sustainability and compatibility in the mining sector as well as the decentralization, transparency and resilience of the Bitcoin network.

We will accomplish this by providing mining chips, hardware systems, MDKs, and software tools, making our technology open-source where possible, as well as providing documentation and technical expertise to the mining community.
_Proto-Blog

The agreement between Block and Core Scientific follows the general trend towards greater efficiency and decentralization, both in the industrial mining industry and in the home mining sector. While the leading mining hardware manufacturer Bitmain is setting new standards in efficiency and hashrate performance with the Antminer S21-XP series, new and more efficient home mining models have also been released recently, such as the successor to the Nerdminer - the NerdAxe -, the open source project BitAxe, the crowdfunding project Avalon Nano 3 or the BMM 100 Mini Miner from mining veteran Braiins.

The development of the ASIC chip design is also gaining momentum. Bitdeer presented the 4-nanometer mining chip SEAL01 back in March. The 3-nanometer technology from Block's Proto team is now setting new standards and could redefine the mining process. 

This development shows that the previous top dogs in Bitcoin mining hardware production, such as the Chinese company Bitmain, are facing an increasing number of new competitors who could score points with many network participants through transparency and new technology. It remains exciting to follow future developments in these areas.