Block, through the Proto company, subsidiary of the company in charge of the Mining Products of the Block, revealed for the first time its open source modular hardware for mine Bitcoin: Proto Rig. This miner will be accompanied by a free program that works with Stratum V2, called Proto Fleet, for the complete management of the mining fleet software.
Asic’s revelation happened in a live streaming from the facilities of the Minera Core Scientific company, in Giorgia, USA. The presentation was in charge of Thomas Templeton, hardware leader at Block, a company whose CEO is Jack DORSEY.
The device has a 9.4 kW density per square foot (industry leader, according to proto). This measurement that reflects the concentration of energy power in the size of the physical system. In other words, The 9.4 kW per square foot measure the spatial efficiency of the device Bitcoin miner.
With 0.12 kW of energy expenditure, the efficiency of proto RIG is 14.1 j/th, close to the Bitmain Antminer of the S21 XP series, according to data from data from data from ASIC MINER VALUE.
Likewise, the Executive reports that Proto Rig produces a 20% savings in maintenance and investment costs in each update cyclewhich is defined in the context of Bitcoin mining as the period in which miners replace or update their hardware to stay competitive and adapt to the growing complexity of the network.
The modular design would have to do with these capital savings, as it would allow greater durability of the equipment and even the repair of components without using tools.
Proto Rig is “a completely new mining system,” says Templeton. “It is not only a new machine, or a new chip, but a paradigm shift,” he clarifies.
The block leader ensures that this paradigm shift walks in the opposite direction of design philosophies that manufacture disposable hardware, capable of supporting little usability. Proto Rig is “durable, repairable and improvable.”
As Cryptonotics reported, Block wields a modular design philosophy, of which proto RIG is its first complete practical application.
This mining device can be repaired and improved directly on the shelf of mining equipment, without the need to transport it to other physical locations. It can also be disassembling rapidly, in less than a minuteas the demonstration reinforces during live broadcast.
Thomas Templeton says that modular block and proto philosophy is reflected in the physical design of the hardware. They did the Hashboards (Circuit plates with chips that perform calculations to find the Nance of a block) accessible and easy to exchange and improve. Proto Fleet, on the other hand, uses Stratum V2 and modernizes the management of Asic Mining software, since according to Templeton, “mining has not really been updated with advances in software in general.”
Stratum V2 is a protocol that allows communication between ASIC (miners) and mining pools. Among other functions, this protocol allows work negotiation (Job Negotiation), A procedure that allows miners to choose their own decentralized mining templates. Currently, this version 2 is used by Pools as DMND.
As Cryptonotics reported, Jack Dorsy’s intentions to create hardware for Bitcoin’s undermine date up to 2022. On that date, both Templeton and the former Twitter CEO showed their concern to simplify Bitcoin mining respecting the open source.
