Jack Dorsey's Block Reveals Modular Bitcoin Mining Rigs That Can Be Upgraded

By Mat Di Salvo

Jack Dorsey's fintech Block has released its latest Bitcoin product: a long-lasting mining rig with swappable parts, which will enable miners to cut costs on repairing and replacing the high-powered computing devices. 

Announcing the product Thursday, Block said the machine, dubbed Proto Rig, will last 10 years instead of the typical three-to-five-year lifespan. Proto Rig's design means that engineers can upgrade individual parts of the machine—like hashboards—without buying a new rig entirely. Block said that the new rig would cut costs for miners by 15-20% each upgrade cycle.

"Machines break often, are hard to repair, expensive and time-consuming to upgrade, and don’t make the most efficient use of power or space," Thomas Templeton, hardware lead at Block, said in a statement. "With Rig, we set out to change all of that—and contribute to hardware decentralization in the process."

The new product comes as the cost of mining has increased and the rewards for verifying transactions on the blockchain have become more difficult to earn. Last year's halving cut the payoff for miners to 3.125 BTC from 6.25 BTC. Mining is notoriously difficult and energy consuming, with industrial miners running warehouses full of mining rigs. 

In its most recent quarter, MARA Holdings, the world's largest company in the category by BTC mined, reported a 505% increase in net income, and other miners reported strong results—but these companies have benefited from the price gains of their Bitcoin holdings. The underlying challenges they face are likely to continue, experts say, and a number of these firms have already pivoted their resources toward AI; or in the case of BitMine Immersion and Bit Digital, become Ethereum treasuries.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said that he wants all future Bitcoin minted in the States—a likely impossible task. 

Many mining machines are made in China, but Dorsey has said he wants to change that by producing them in the U.S.

Dorsey, who founded Twitter (now X) before leaving in 2021 to focus his efforts on payments and Bitcoin adoption, has said he wants the virtual coin to be the global currency. He has also described Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin white paper as "poetry."

Block's other companies—like Square and Cash App—have released Bitcoin products, including a crypto hardware wallet, Bitkey. Square's payment terminals also allow merchants to accept Bitcoin payments, though that feature is still rolling out broadly.

Block's stock (NYSE: XYZ) was trading about 1% lower on Thursday, according to Yahoo Finance. The company, which joined the S&P 500 in July, is up more than 10% over the past month but down over 12% year-to-date.  

Bitcoin was recently trading at about $118,200, down nearly 3% over the past 24 hours after hitting a new all-time high mark above $124,000 on Wednesday. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap has risen more than 25% since the start of 2025.

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