Jack Dorsey’s Square is getting into Bitcoin mining. The announcement was made by the CEO himself, who is also leading Twitter.
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.
— jack
(@jack) October 15, 2021
Square and truly decentralized Bitcoin mining
Square is considering building an open source Bitcoin mining system dedicated to individuals and companies around the world.
The aim is to make Bitcoin mining affordable for everyone. In fact, Bitcoin mining is currently in the hands of a few huge companies, which used to be concentrated in China, and are now mostly moving to North America.
Due to the difficulty of the calculations required to carry out mining operations, these are no longer within the reach of a single individual, as they were in the early years of Bitcoin. Mining BTC requires a huge amount of machinery and electricity. This is why people can no longer mine BTC directly from their home computers and the business is only in the hands of large industries that can sustain large investments. This, however, leads to the concentration of mining in the hands of a select few. The exact opposite of what Bitcoin should be: decentralized. Jack Dorsey points out:
“The more decentralized this is, the more resilient the Bitcoin network becomes”.
Jack Dorsey’s solution
Jack Dorsey first proposes that Bitcoin mining should become more sustainable. This is a battle he has long been engaged in. To make this happen, innovation is needed, starting with software.
The other problem is the production of silicon, which is in the hands of a few companies, and the integration between them and the software producers. It would probably be better to look at the whole thing rather than just focusing on a single technology.
Finally, Jack Dorsey notes:
“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. What are the biggest barriers for people running miners?”
This is the real question to be answered.
Square’s team is already hard at work.
Jesse Dorogusker will be in charge of finding a solution to all these questions. Obviously, just like the hardware wallet, Jack Dorsey also wants the mining ecosystem to be an open process for ideas and contributions.
On his feed, Twitter users went wild. Calvin Ayre argues that the real Bitcoin is actually BSV. Others write that for energy-efficient mining it is better to choose Cardano. Others note that there is actually no advantage for the ordinary user to mine BTC.
We will now have to wait for the developments of the Square team and see if mining is actually going to become affordable for everyone.
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