Square to Consider Building a Bitcoin Mining System

Payments service provider Square is looking to develop a bitcoin mining system, the company’s CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted on Friday.

• “Square is considering building a Bitcoin mining system based on custom silicon and open source for individuals and businesses worldwide,” Dorsey wrote.
• In his threaded tweets, Dorsey wrote that mining needs to be more distributed and energy-efficient, and that silicon design is too concentrated into just a few companies, leading to reduced supply.
• He also said that mining should be more accessible to everyone, and he was soliciting thoughts on whether Square should pursue the project or not, and why or why not.
• Dorsey wrote that if the payments service provider begins the initiative, it would follow the open-source model it is using to build a hardware wallet.
• Square hardware lead Jesse Dorogusker will “start the deep technical investigation required to take on this project,” Dorsey wrote.
• Dorogusker is also leading the wallet project, tweeting in July that he was assembling a team to focus on that initiative.
• Dorsey has been an enthusiastic supporter of bitcoin, believing that the cryptocurrency has great potential. In August, he tweeted that TBD, Square’s new division focused on creating an open developer platform, is planning to build a decentralized bitcoin exchange.

UPDATE (Oct. 15, 21:34 UTC): Updated with additional detail on Dorsey’s tweets.