This would add to Square's existing Bitcoin-focused projects
including a business to build an open developer platform, as well as a hardware
wallet for the cryptocurrency.
“If we do this, we’d follow our hardware wallet model: build
in the open in collaboration with the community,” Dorsey said in a
tweet. This will be completely open source like Square’s previously announced
hardware wallet for Bitcoin, which can be stored offline or online at
cryptocurrency exchanges.
A team led by Square’s hardware lead, Jesse Dorogusker, will
investigate requisites for Square to take on the project to build a Bitcoin
mining system.
In his Twitter thread, Dorsey also said that silicon design
or chip design is too concentrated into a few companies, leading to supply
constraints.
Shares of Square were up about 1 percent in extended
trading.
On Friday, Bitcoin topped $60,000 for the first time in six
months, since China's crackdown on Bitcoin trading and mining, as hopes grew
that US regulators would allow a futures-based exchange-traded fund (ETF), a
move likely to open the path to wider investment in digital assets.-Reuters