Block’s 5nm Bitcoin Mining Chip Prototype

The financial services and technology business Block, which is controlled by Jack Dorsey, has just finished the prototype design of its new 5nm Bitcoin mining chip. This was done with the intention of decentralizing the supply of Bitcoin mining rigs. The business noted that the development of Bitcoin mining ASIC rigs is both financially and technically hard, which has led to an excessive concentration of the ownership of specialized mining silicon in the hands of a few number of enterprises. It is believed that miners and the Bitcoin network as a whole would suffer from the negative effects of this concentration.

In response, Block intends to make Bitcoin mining technology open source wherever it is feasible by selling standalone ASICs and other hardware components. This move is intended to enhance the size of the Bitcoin mining hardware ecosystem while also maximizing the amount of innovation that may occur inside it. Because of the actions taken by the firm over the previous few months, it will now be able to experiment with new designs, which will help the company bring Bitcoin mining chips to market that are both more efficient and less expensive.

As a means of accelerating this development drive, Block has made a significant purchase of ASIC chips from Intel, prompting the latter to stop accepting new orders for its Blockscale 1000 Series ASICs. This move was made in order to shorten the development cycle. Block expects that by purchasing these ASICs from Intel, it would be able to speed up the development of its own 3nm chip, which, upon its eventual release, the company says will be the most technologically sophisticated semiconductor to date.

The significance of ASIC development to the Bitcoin mining process is reflected in Block’s concentration on the development of these devices. ASICs are computerized devices that are tailored to accomplish a particular computational function. They are commonly used for mining proof-of-work cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, which need a specific computational task to be completed. When individual components of a chip get smaller, it becomes possible to pack more transistors into a silicon die of the same size. This results in increased overall efficiency and a reduction in the amount of heat that is generated.

Although 5nm ASIC chips have been available for some time, the first 5nm ASIC was not released until 2021 by the Chinese mining company Canaan. Despite this, no company has yet made the ASIC chip designs that they produce open source. It is anticipated that Block’s dedication to open source technology will have a substantial influence on the Bitcoin mining business. This will result in additional alternatives being available to miners and will contribute to the network’s efforts to become more decentralized.

Source

Tagged : / / / / /

TBD’s Block Launches c= to Enhance Bitcoin Lightning Network

TBD, a subsidiary of Block, has announced the launch of c=, a new initiative that aims to improve the Bitcoin Lightning Network. c= is a new endeavor that aims to improve the Bitcoin Lightning Network. The Lightning Network is a layer 2 payment network that aims to make Bitcoin transactions quicker, cheaper, and more reliable. Its primary function is to reduce the fees associated with Bitcoin transactions. From its inception, the network has been subject to unplanned expansion, with the acceptance of its services in the real world being the primary driver of its liquidity and capacity.

TBD wants to further extend the scope of the Lightning Network by offering more liquidity and routing services, and with the introduction of c=, they hope to accomplish this goal. The objective of the c= project is to enhance the architecture of the network in order to better facilitate the use of Bitcoin as a payment mechanism by the general public.

The Lightning Network is a crucial breakthrough for Bitcoin since it overcomes some of the difficulties associated with the original blockchain, such as sluggish transaction times and excessive fees. This makes the Lightning Network a vital addition to the Bitcoin ecosystem. Lightning Network transactions are peer-to-peer transactions that are more trustworthy, cheaper, and quicker than typical blockchain transactions. This is made possible by the addition of a second layer to the network, which is what the Lightning Network does.

Nevertheless, there are several difficulties associated with using the Lightning Network. Lack of liquidity is one of the primary problems, which might make it challenging to route transactions over the network. This is one of the fundamental challenges. Services such as c= come into play at this point. c=’s goal is to enhance the user experience by providing more liquidity and routing services. This will make it simpler for more individuals to use Bitcoin as a payment method and should encourage more people to do so.

Since it displays a dedication to developing the Lightning Network and making Bitcoin more accessible to a larger audience, the introduction of c= is an exciting step for the Bitcoin community. Services like as c= are vital for guaranteeing that the Bitcoin network is able to continue to satisfy the demands of users all around the globe as it continues its rapid expansion and widespread acceptance.

Source

Tagged : / / / / /

Block on Hiring Spree for Bitcoin Mining, Wallet Hardware Businesses

Payments company Block has announced multiple job openings for its bitcoin mining and wallet hardware businesses.

OUXxd_W1_400x400 (1) q.jpg

According to the company’s job postings on LinkedIn, the available job openings are heads of Bitcoin mining policy, communications, and partnerships.

Formerly known as Square, the company was introduced into the market in 2009, focusing on in-person payments and its namesake card reader, which lets people accept credit card payments on a smartphone.

The company’s name was changed to Square last year by CEO Jack Dorsey as they wanted to broaden their services towards blockchain, music, and cash transfers.

According to a job advertisement posted by Block on Saturday for a “test hub lead,” the firm said its mining team develops “bitcoin mining ASIC, bitcoin mining rig, and associated systems, software and infrastructure.”

The posting added that the test hub will “host Block’s mining hardware and will be used to test the hardware and software and the overall operational issues (power, cooling, dust, restart, performance monitoring, connectivity to pool) of the mining system.”

Other job openings also include product and engineering departments. These employees will help “to develop the next generation of mining ASIC”, along with building its “first mining rig” and “future mining rig product lines.”

Furthermore, several other open positions are available related to wallet design. 

Block revealed its Bitcoin hardware wallet this past spring.

According to a January report from CNBC, Block’s general manager for hardware, Thomas Templeton, outlined the company’s Bitcoin mining goals.

He tweeted, “common issues we’ve heard with current systems are heat dissipation and dust. They also become non-functional almost every day, which requires a time-consuming reboot. We want to build something that just works.”

Block’s push into mining has come when the sector is going through a difficult phase. Companies have been struggling with profit margins for the past few months as bitcoin’s value has dropped and energy prices have risen along with the global hash rate.

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Tagged : / / / / /

Nigeria Takes the Highest Bitcoin Optimism Levels at 60%, Survey Reads

Since knowledge feeds optimism and participation, Nigeria emerged as the top nation with the highest rates of optimism about Bitcoin’s future at 60%, according to a study by Jack Dorsey-owned Block, Inc.

Other nations with high Bitcoin (BTC) optimism levels are India, Vietnam, Argentina, and South Africa, recording 58%, 56%, 55%, and 52%, respectively. 

Image

Source: Block, Inc.

Regarding crypto awareness, Bitcoin was twice as known at 88% compared to Ethereum at 43%. Dogecoin (DOGE) was third at 31%. Per the report:

“Awareness of Bitcoin is higher than that of any other cryptocurrency globally — by far — with 88% of adults surveyed having heard of Bitcoin specifically.”

In terms of age groups, millennials and baby boomers led the pack with the highest BTC awareness levels. The study noted:

“Globally, millennials and baby boomers, in particular, have the highest levels of Bitcoin awareness at 92.5% and 89.2%, but all age cohorts have relatively high awareness.”

Most respondents acknowledged that BTC was a stepping stone towards a more equitable economy. 

On the other hand, the lack of Bitcoin knowledge was the biggest stumbling block to purchasing it. Per the report:

“41% of those who say they have fair to expert levels of cryptocurrency knowledge say they are very likely to purchase Bitcoin in the next 12 months, compared with just 7.9% of those with limited to no knowledge of the topic.”

Block, Inc., formerly Square, surveyed in conjunction with Wakefield Research between January 10 and 28 and interviewed more than 9,500 adults aged 18 and above in the three regions. 4,360 were from Europe, the Middle East, Africa (EMEA), 2,860 from Asia-Pacific (APAC), and 2,375 from the Americas.

Therefore, it doesn’t come as a surprise that Nigeria takes the lion’s share of Bitcoin optimism, given that 35% of Nigerians had entered the crypto space in a span of 6 months, according to a recent study by crypto exchange KuCoin. 

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Tagged : / / / / / /

Block Q1 BTC Revenue Plunges 51% Amid General Market Turbulence

Block Inc’s Cash App recorded a total Bitcoin (BTC) sale of $1.73 billion in the first quarter of 2022, a figure that plunged by over 51% from the prior quarter.

BLK2.jpg

Cash App comes off as one of the most dominant channels to buy and transact in Bitcoin, cementing its role as one of the pioneers in the fintech space that adopted the premier cryptocurrency.

The growth of the digital currency ecosystem has been very erratic during the quarter and this became visible in Block’s overall performance with respect to the sales and revenue of the digital currency. Atop the declined total sales, the gross profit coming from the sales of the digital currency was pegged at $43 million when compared to this same period last year.

“Cash App generated $1.73 billion of bitcoin revenue and $43 million of bitcoin gross profit during the first quarter of 2022, down 51% and 42% year over year, respectively. On a two-year CAGR basis, bitcoin revenue and gross profit grew 138% and 155%, respectively,” Block said in its shareholder letter. The company was formerly known as Square Inc and at the time, the firm’s performance was known to be boosted by Bitcoin’s growth.

Since the beginning of the year, the volatility in the price of Bitcoin has kept it within the $48,086.84 and $34,378.04 price ranges respectively. The extreme difference in this range is a conservative addition compared to what the premier coin is known to always print.

The general absence of a massive price upsurge, known as a bull run, notably affected the demand for the cryptocurrency as Block said in the shareholder’s letter.

“The year-over-year decrease in bitcoin revenue and gross profit was driven primarily by relative stability in the price of bitcoin during the quarter, which affected consumer demand and trading activity compared to the prior year period. Bitcoin revenue and gross profit were relatively consistent compared to the fourth quarter of 2021.”

Drawing on this reality, the company said future revenue and profit can also be impacted by these trends in relaxed demand.

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Tagged : / / /

Elon Musk Abandons to Join Twitter Board, while Tesla Join Hands with Tech Firms for Mining Bitcoin Green

In efforts to make Bitcoin (BTC) mining more environmentally friendly, Tesla, Blockstream, and Jack Dorsey-owned Block, formerly Square, have teamed up to power a mining facility with solar energy, according to CNBC. Meanwhile, Elon Musk, the biggest shareholder of Twitter decides not to join the board of Twitter, says CEO Parag Agrawal.

Webp.net-resizeimage - 2022-04-11T152557.604.jpg

Musk-led Telsa utilizes a 3.8 megawatts (MW) solar PV array and a 12 megawatt-hour (MWh) Megapack, the Bitcoin mining facility in Texas, which is expected to be completed construction later this year, will be propelled by 30 Petahashes per second of mining hardware using 100% solar energy.

Megapack is a robust lithium-ion battery developed by Tesla that offers energy support and storage. 

Adam Back, a British cryptographer and the co-founder and CEO of Blockstream, noted:

“This is a step to proving our thesis that Bitcoin mining can fund zero-emission power infrastructure and build economic growth for the future.”

Tracking the project using an open dashboard

Back said:

“People like to debate about the different factors to do with bitcoin mining. We figured, let’s just prove it. Have an open dashboard so people can play along, maybe it can inform other players to participate.”

The dashboard will be open to the public, showing the real-time performance of the project, including total Bitcoin mined and power output. 

Meanwhile, Blockstream will be responsible for the mining infrastructure and oversee the project.

As Texas State enjoys sufficient solar and wind energy, it is emerging as an ideal location for Bitcoin miners. 

Back confirmed that wind power will be added to the expand the scale of Bitcoin mining if the project is profitable. He stated:

“You’re making a sort of calculation of the optimal economic mix between solar and battery. There’s 3.8 megawatts of solar and one megawatt of mining, so you can see you have to overprovision, because the peak solar input varies during the day and, of course, it’s not there at night.”

Incorporating wind energy would minimize overall costs by balancing solar’s downtime.

Neil Jorgensen, Block’s global ESG lead, noted the project would be a stepping stone toward using renewable energy in BTC mining. He noted:

“By collaborating on this full-stack, 100% solar-powered bitcoin mining project with Blockstream, using solar and storage technology from Tesla, we aim to further accelerate bitcoin’s synergy with renewables.”

Meanwhile, ExxonMobil, an oil and energy giant, recently announced the launch of a pilot program to convert excess natural gas into energy that powered mobile generators to mine Bitcoin.

Elon Musk gives up to join Twitter’s board

On the other hand, days after Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc. and SpaceX, attained a 9.2% ownership stake of Twitter and was appointed a member of the board of directors, he decided to abandon plans to be part of the board in Twitter. Nevertheless, Musk remains the largest shareholder of the social media giant. 

Image source: Shutterstock

Source

Tagged : / / / / /

Meta Joins Crypto Open Patent Alliance

Key Takeaways

  • Meta has joined the Crypto Open Patent Alliance.
  • Members of this group pledge to not legally enforce crypto-related patents.
  • Last week, Meta sold the intellectual property behind its Diem stablecoin.




Share this article


Meta has become a member of the Crypto Open Patent Alliance. This group consists of several prominent companies in the cryptocurrency space that have pledged not to enforce certain crypto patents. 

“Growth and Innovation”

Meta has joined the Crypto Open Patent Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to cryptocurrency innovation led by Block, Jack Dorsey’s payments solutions company formerly known as Square. Among COPA’s stated goals is to “remove patents as a barrier to growth and innovation.”

The consortium includes more than 25 other companies, including Coinbase, Microstrategy, Uniswap, and Kraken. According to the Crypto Open Patent Alliance’s general manager, Max Sills, joining the group represents a company’s pledge that it will not enforce its “core cryptocurrency patents.”



Although several major companies count themselves as members of COPA, Meta is the largest to date in terms of the number of patents it holds, according to Sills. 

Meta’s head of licensing and transactions, Shayne O’Reilly, will represent Meta on COPA’s board.

Emblematic of Meta’s struggles in the cryptocurrency industry is its recent $200 million sale of the technology behind its Diem stablecoin, preceded by its years-long battle with U.S. lawmakers over the stablecoin. Meta has, however, retained its digital wallet Novi, which it launched as a pilot program to certain customers in Guatemala and the United States last October. Last December, Novi launched a crypto payments feature to select users in the U.S. via WhatsApp (also owned by Meta). 


Dorsey, meanwhile has been involved in other initiatives beyond COPA that seek to push the blockchain space forward. Earlier this month, he announced the Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund with the goal of helping Bitcoin developers who face legal struggles. 

Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned BTC, ETH, and several other cryptocurrencies. 



Share this article


Source

Tagged : / / / /

How To Add Bitcoin To The Balance Sheet For Corporations, With Saylor & Dorsey

Is your company ready to buy the Bitcoin dip? Saylor and Dorsey will give you the 411 for free.99. The MicroStrategy World annual conference goes live on February 1st. Learn directly from these two titans of the industry, who have definitely been among Bitcoin’s main proponents and promoters over the last few years. 

Michael Saylor has led by example, buying every dip, and is a constant presence in mainstream media. His interviews are more like classes and the attention they get is outstanding. Jack Dorsey, for his part, left Twitter to focus on Bitcoin. Since then, his Block company announced several projects that’ll definitely strengthen the Bitcoin network from every angle.

About the MicroStrategy World conference, the press release promises it’ll be “focused on Enterprise Analytics and Bitcoin for Corporations. World 2022 is 100% virtual, and—for the first time ever—access to all sections of the conference is free of charge.” That’s an unbeatable price.

5 BTC + 300 Free Spins for new players & 15 BTC + 35.000 Free Spins every month, only at mBitcasino. Play Now!

What Will Saylor And Dorsey Talk About?

The conference has two sides, two different events that showcase MicroStrategy’s duality:

“The Enterprise Analytics event will introduce bold new ways to think about analytics and business intelligence, and showcase organizations who’ve used data as a strategic differentiator. The Bitcoin for Corporations event will explore the various benefits of incorporating Bitcoin into corporate initiatives.”

As you might expect, NewsBTC will focus on the second event. It’s important to say that both Dorsey and Saylor’s companies have Bitcoin on their balance sheet. These two put their money where their mouth is, and then some. In any case, what does MicroStrategy World promise?

Get 110 USDT Futures Bonus for FREE!

“An in-depth discussion on Bitcoin between two visionary voices: Jack Dorsey, CEO of Block, Inc., and Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy Inc. This session will be followed by a discussion on Bitcoin Treasury with Phong Le (President and CFO, MicroStrategy). Bitcoin for Corporations will also feature live interviews with industry experts from Coinbase, Deloitte, Fidelity Digital Assets, Genesis, Jefferies, NYDIG, Paxos, and Silvergate Bank.”

It’s noteworthy that Fidelity Digital Assets recently shocked the world by predicting more countries and probably a Central Bank or two would add Bitcoin to their balance sheet in the next few years. Christine Sandler, Fidelity’s Head of Sales & Marketing, will represent the company at the conference. 

Saylor ’s Recent Bitcoin History

Since MicroStrategy first added Bitcoin to its balance sheet in August 2020, the company has increased the bet every few months. They issued common stock. They sold stocks. They bought, and bought, and bought, and bought. In a recent interview, Saylor explained the strategy and NewsBTC reported:

“Look, our long term strategy is kind of like Harvard University. We’re running a university but we have an endowment. MicroStrategy is selling enterprise software. We generate $100 million in cash flow a year – in a good year – and we are reinvesting that cash in our endowment. Our endowment is 100% bitcoin.”

Saylor adds that MicroStrategy plans to acquire and hold bitcoin as a balance sheet. As for the operations, the company will continue to sell its enterprise software everywhere in the world.”

Related to this, about MicroStrategy’s free conference, Saylor said:

“We have gained a wealth of experience and expertise innovating our treasury strategy and evolving our corporate bitcoin acquisition strategy. And we’re pleased to be in a position to share our knowledge—via this curated event—for corporations looking to pursue similar strategies and bold initiatives.”

Dorsey’s Recent Bitcoin History

For his part, Dorsey’s strategy is much different than Saylor’s. He’s working in infrastructure. He’s fortifying the network’s weak parts. Among other things, Block announced they’re building a decentralized Bitcoin exchange called tbDEX. Released the Lightning Development Kit. And announced they’re working in an open-source ASIC miner

On a personal level, Dorsey and rapper Jay-Z put 500 BTC in a blind trust to promote Bitcoin development in Africa and India. And created the Bitcoin Defense Legal Fund to protect developers from all kinds of lawsuits.

BTCUSD price chart for 01/21/2022 - TradingView

BTC price chart for 01/21/2022 on Gemini | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com

The Price Of Bitcoin

Despite Saylor’s and Dorsey’s efforts, Bitcoin is bleeding. On one hand, Proof-Of-Stake proponents straight up lied before U.S. Congress in a hearing about Proof-Of-Work’s environmental risks. On the other, there’s a rumor that Russia is considering banning Bitcoin in some capacity. Both of those situations caused panic in the market, and Bitcoin’s price is currently 40% lower than the ATH of $69K. 

Will Michael Saylor buy the dip? 

Featured Image: screenshot from the conference's website | Charts by TradingView

Source

Tagged : / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
Bitcoin (BTC) $ 25,799.91 3.82%
Ethereum (ETH) $ 1,817.97 2.66%
Litecoin (LTC) $ 87.67 5.40%
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 109.64 3.83%