DOOKV Payment Firm Block to Develop a Bitcoin Mining System

“We’ve spent a significant amount of time talking to a wide variety of bitcoin miners to identify the challenges faced by mining operators,” said Block. “Building on these insights and pursuant to our goal of supporting mining decentralization, we plan to offer both a standalone mining chip as well as a full mining system of our own design.”

Block completed a prototype design of a five-nanometre BTC mining chip in May 2023, claiming at the time the centralization of chip development in the hands of a few companies was harmful to the ecosystem. The firm called on the mining community to provide additional feedback for the system, asking for comments on challenges it faced in purchasing miners, maintenance, transparency and software issues.

Intel announced in 2023 that it planned to end shipping for its Blockscale 1000 Series ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) mining chips in April as part of cost-cutting measures. Such chips are often used for mining proof-of-work cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin.