Square Inc., digital payments company intends to invest $5 million to build an open-source, solar-powered Bitcoin mining facility at one of Blockstream’s mining sites in the United States. The partnership shows Jack Dorsey’s continuous support for blockchain infrastructure.
The facility will be “proof-of-concept for a 100% renewable energy Bitcoin mining at scale,” said Blockstream in a blog post.
“We hope to show that a renewable mining facility in the real world is not only possible but also prove empirically that Bitcoin accelerates the world toward a sustainable future,” Blockstream said in a release.
Bitcoin mining has been subject to extreme media scrutiny after Tesla CEO Elon mask announced to suspend BTC payment for Tesla purchase citing environmental concerns. In May, he met Bitcoin miners to form a Bitcoin mining council promoting energy usage transparency and accelerating sustainability imitative worldwide.
Blockstream is a leading blockchain development company founded by Adam Back in 2014.
Square has been a long supporter of cryptocurrencies and highly interested in mining echoes other ambitions at payment providers. Dorsey also announced that he is considering making hardware wallets for bitcoin customers of its digital payment services company Square.
“If we do it, we would build it entirely in the open, from software to hardware design, and in collaboration with the community,” he said in a Twitter post.