Digital payments firm Block (NYSE: SQ), co-founded by Jack Dorsey, announced on Tuesday that it had completed the design of a cutting-edge three-nanometer bitcoin mining chip. 

Block is now working with a leading global semiconductor foundry to finalize the chip’s production. This advancement brings the firm closer to its goal of offering a standalone bitcoin mining chip as well as a full mining system designed in-house.

According to Block, their mining chip will leverage the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing process available, putting it in a position to deliver top performance for miners into the fifth epoch or the period following bitcoin’s fourth halving event on April 19th, and beyond.

“With a standalone mining chip, we will represent the only large, well-capitalized mining hardware vendor with such a solution,” the company wrote. “We hope this will help unlock mining system innovation and new use cases.”

The move expands Block’s bitcoin mining ambitions beyond just chip design into full system development. The company aims to democratize bitcoin mining by offering more accessible and user-friendly mining rigs — as Dorsey said in 2021, mining should be as easy as plugging a rig into a power source. 

This philosophy underpins Block’s effort to verticalize the mining hardware supply chain through custom silicon design. With its considerable capital and expertise, the company could emerge as a major provider of mining chips and systems.

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