Jack Dorsey’s Block is looking to increase the longevity of Bitcoin mining equipment with new upgrades. To do so, the crypto-friendly fintech firm has unveiled Proto Rig and Proto Fleet as a hardware and software package that could make the BTC mining machines reusable for up to a decade.
Proto, the BTC mining hardware and software unit owned by Block, announced the launch on August 14. While Proto Rig has been defined as a modular mining system, Proto Fleet has been launched as an open-source fleet management software.
The announcement said that up until now, BTC mining has been controlled by a handful of companies, restricted to particular regions. This has made the process rather centralized, Proto’ s announcement claimed.
Highlighting the shortcomings of the BTC mining software, the post said that presently existing “inelegant solutions” have forced mining operators to manage multiple systems inefficiently.
“Proto Rig is designed to solve for rackspace density, get the most out of existing electrical infrastructure, and make upgrades extremely easy and efficient. Proto Fleet aims to bring together everything a mining operator needs: from power scaling, to individual miner diagnostics, to maintenance, to overall fleet performance, all in one place,” the blog explained.
A video showing the sleek, CPU-like hardware running the Proto Fleet software has been released on X.
Instructing how to use this combination, Proto said, small scale miners will not have to replace their existing fleet and just swap out the hashboards.
“You can just swap out hashboards, at about the same level of difficulty as loading a dishwasher. And while you pop in new, more powerful hashboards, you can just keep mining. Your infrastructure can stay in place, without the need to power down large portions of your fleet at once,” the announcement added.
Block claims that mining machines that used to be viable for up to five years, can now be used for up to ten years.