Block, mass purchase of BTC mining chips from Intel, which announced the end of production ── Focus on 3nm chip development | coindesk JAPAN | Coindesk Japan

Block, a payments company led by Jack Dorsey, is accelerating its plans to enter the mining hardware market as it buys a ton of bitcoin (BTC) mining chips from Intel as Intel ends mining chip production. . While focusing on the development of state-of-the-art 3-nanometer chips, it will introduce mining machines to the market.

In February, Intel announced that it would end production of application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for BTC mining in April 2024.

Block blogged on April 28 that he jumped at the opportunity to buy the ASIC in bulk from Intel. The company had planned to finish designing a 5-nanometer chip for BTC mining and build a machine within this quarter. The chip purchase will allow the company to focus on 3-nanometer chip design.

Block machines are expected to arrive in early 2024, Thomas Templeton, head of hardware at the company, said in an interview with CoinDesk. The number of chips the company has purchased, he said, is enough to buy Block time to design and bring its own 3-nanometer chips to market.

The purpose of building mining machines is to improve the decentralization of the BTC network, the company said. When it comes to mining, Templeton said the main issue is “manufacturing and supply chain diversity.” “We want to create tools that can be used by more people. When it comes down to mining, we end up with ASICs.”

The mining machine industry is dominated by two companies. Bitmain, Mike and BT.

In March, Block announced that it was working on a mining development kit that would allow engineers to build mining machines using the company’s chips. He said he would provide developers with a suite of tools to enable innovation in BTC mining machines. The company is open sourcing its tools and hopes the community can contribute to its development. That’s why the kit was announced, Templeton said.

｜Translation: coindesk JAPAN
｜Editing: Takayuki Masuda
｜Image: Consensus 2023/CoinDesk
｜ Original: Jack Dorsey’s Block Snaps Up Bitcoin Mining Chip as Intel Winds Down Production