Block says it has finished developing its own 3nm bitcoin mining chip and is working through the design with a “leading global semiconductor foundry”
Jack Dorsey says that his payments company, Block (formerly Square), is expanding its bitcoin mining ambitions from designing chips …
Context & Ripple Effects
Block’s mining push has progressed from Jack Dorsey’s earlier consideration of an open-source miner built on custom silicon to a 2022 commitment to an open-source mining system aimed at broader distribution and efficiency.
The company had also tied its bitcoin interests to energy infrastructure through a solar-powered mining project with Blockstream. Moving a chip design into foundry work is therefore a concrete step toward controlling a more foundational layer of that strategy.
First-order effects
- Block shifts from stating a mining-hardware ambition to advancing a completed 3nm chip design with a semiconductor foundry; the immediate task is design execution rather than a disclosed commercial launch.
- The move gives Block a potential proprietary component for its mining-system plans, while making foundry collaboration a critical dependency for turning the design into hardware.
Second-order effects
- If Block brings the chip to market, incumbent mining-hardware vendors may face another buyer-backed competitor pursuing custom silicon and an open-system positioning.
- Block’s mining partners and prospective system users could gain an alternative hardware path, but availability, performance, and pricing remain undisclosed.
Third-order effects
- The development supports a broader shift from bitcoin mining as a hardware-purchasing activity toward vertically integrated infrastructure, where companies seek leverage across chips, systems, and energy inputs.
- Whether that shift broadens competition depends on whether new custom-chip efforts can progress through manufacturing and become commercially available; this report does not establish that outcome.
The trend: Bitcoin-mining participants are increasingly seeking control of upstream infrastructure—from energy projects to custom silicon—rather than relying solely on established hardware suppliers.