Welcoming Core Scientific, our first mining chip customer

Today we are announcing an agreement to supply Core Scientific with our new 3-nanometer (3nm) mining ASICs representing approximately 15 EH/s (exahashes per second) of hashrate. The agreement provides the option for additional, significant volume and is one of the industry’s largest bitcoin mining ASIC agreements announced, in terms of hashrate. Following our recent ASIC development update, we’re excited to introduce the first initiative to leverage the new chips. 

Our primary motivation in the field of bitcoin mining is to increase the decentralization, transparency, and resiliency of the Bitcoin network. We will accomplish this by providing mining chips, hardware systems, MDKs, and software tools, making our technology open-source where possible, as well as providing documentation and technical expertise to the mining community.

ASIC technology is currently highly concentrated in the hands of a few companies capable of developing custom bitcoin mining silicon solutions. Most of these companies design their own chips and hardware products and maintain complete control over decisions regarding form factors and innovation guardrails. Our ASIC program will democratize mining by enabling third parties to use our chips to develop custom hardware solutions tailored to their specific needs, whether on their own or in partnership with us, significantly expanding the bitcoin mining ecosystem. This strategy underscores our long-term commitment to the industry.

Core Scientific will become our first customer to leverage our ASIC in a unique mining solution. The choice of Core Scientific is intentional, as they are among the most prominent leaders in the bitcoin mining industry, managing one of the largest mining operations in North America. They’re known in the industry for their high standards of operational excellence and advanced infrastructure, having deployed more than 700,000 miners.

Our strategic agreement with Core Scientific is about more than just supply and demand—it's about exchanging expertise and collaboration. While supplying approximately 15 EH/s of our mining ASICs, with an option for significant volume increases, the Proto team at Block also co-designed a modular platform alongside ePIC Blockchain Technologies with input from Core Scientific. This innovative platform offers several advantages over existing mining system designs, resulting in improved efficiency, reliability, and uptime in large-scale mining operations. It's designed to simplify infrastructure demands and optimize the use of space and operational resources within data centers such as those operated by Core Scientific, and also prioritizes sustainability and compatibility by integrating with existing infrastructure and promoting the reuse of non-ASIC elements of the hardware stack.

We are already actively developing the new system, which will be operational from the outset, using an older generation ASIC to verify the system design. The modular design flexibility will allow for straightforward upgrades to our 3nm ASIC via its swappable hashboard. This ensures the system will easily adapt to newer generations of ASICs as they become available. We will use learnings from this initial project to scale access to our vertically integrated hardware systems and ASIC chips, enabling Core Scientific and, in the future, other mining companies, big and small, to explore new possibilities.

If you’re looking to partner, have questions, or want to share your thoughts, you can reach the team directly at mining@block.xyz.