Block Inc., the company formerly known as Square, has officially entered the Bitcoin mining hardware race. The company launched its Proto Rig modular mining system on August 14, 2025, at Core Scientific’s facility in Dalton, Georgia, with CEO Jack Dorsey in attendance.

The Proto Rig is compact. Its chassis measures 39 cm x 29 cm x 50 cm, roughly the size of a small desktop computer tower. Each unit can accommodate up to nine hash boards and three power units, pushing hash rates up to 810 TH. In select configurations, the Proto Rig can hit 14.1 J/TH. The system supports advanced liquid-cooling options and is built around a modular design philosophy: components are swappable, error signaling is built to be clear and actionable, and operators can identify a problem, pull the faulty component, and replace it without sending the whole rig overseas.

Alongside the hardware, Block introduced Proto Fleet, an open-source software package designed to manage mining operations. The software includes secure boot capabilities and AI-assisted interfaces for diagnostics. Stratum V2 support comes included out of the box, giving individual miners more control over which transactions they include in blocks rather than leaving that decision entirely to mining pool operators.

Core Scientific is the initial shipping target for the Proto Rig. Core Scientific operates some of the largest Bitcoin mining facilities in North America and recently emerged from bankruptcy with renewed focus on both mining and AI hosting infrastructure.

The Bitcoin mining hardware market has a concentration problem. Bitmain has historically controlled over 80% of the market for ASIC miners. Block’s bet is that a modular, repairable, open-source alternative can chip away at that concentration, decentralizing both hashrate distribution and the hardware supply chain itself.

The 14.1 J/TH efficiency figure, if it holds up at scale in real-world deployments, positions the Proto Rig competitively against current-generation hardware. Investors should watch Core Scientific’s deployment timeline closely, as real-world performance under sustained load will determine whether this represents a genuine market disruption.