CEO Jack Dorsey: Square Might Start Building Bitcoin Mining Rigs
Bitcoin bull, and the CEO of Twitter and Square, Jack Dorsey took it to Twitter to share his latest potential plan regarding BTC. He tweeted that Square is exploring whether to build Bitcoin mining hardware.
Dorsey Tweeted:
“Square is considering building a Bitcoin mining system based on custom silicon and open source for individuals and businesses worldwide. If we do this, we’d follow our hardware wallet model: build in the open in collaboration with the community.”
Square is considering building a Bitcoin mining system based on custom silicon and open source for individuals and businesses worldwide. If we do this, we’d follow our hardware wallet model: build in the open in collaboration with the community. First some thoughts and questions.
Dorsey sent out a tweet thread, noting the fact that increased distribution of cryptocurrency mining nodes helps secure a decentralized network.
According to the Twitter boss, there is a need for more energy-efficient mining, referencing one of the biggest mainstream discussion points around Bitcoin and crypto. It’s one that helped trigger the crypto market’s summer slump, after electric car maker Tesla protested the energy-intensive mining process.
He wrote:
“Driving towards clean and efficient energy use is great for Bitcoin’s economics, impact, and scalability. Energy is a system-level problem that requires innovation in silicon, software, and integration.”
At the moment the custom-built Bitcoin mining rigs are very expensive, take months to source, and require a significant amount of energy to operate. Dorsey thinks that there are ways to improve the status que. For example the design of silicon chips is “too concentrated into a few companies,” and that improved processes, including vertical integration with software and system design, can produce a better mining rig.
Dorsey wrote:
“Mining isn’t accessible to everyone. Bitcoin mining should be as easy as plugging a rig into a power source. There isn’t enough incentive today for individuals to overcome the complexity of running a miner for themselves.”
According to Dorsey, Jesse Dorogusker, who leads hardware efforts at Square, heads up the firm’s TIDAL streaming music service, and is a former Apple engineer, will lead the team beginning the “deep technical investigation required to take on this project.”
Dorsey has recently announced a number of Bitcoin-related initiatives for the financial services firm. Square’s Cash App mobile application is already a popular way to purchase Bitcoin, and the film announced in July that it plans to build a Bitcoin hardware wallet. In August, Square revealed plans to create a new kind of decentralized exchange focused on Bitcoin, as well.
The Bitcoin maximalist has said in recent months that he hopes Bitcoin can bring about “world peace,” and also said he “would leave” his dual CEO roles to work on Bitcoin if it “needed more help than Square or Twitter.
