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Proto: Challenging the mining hardware monopoly Dorsey’ s most ambitious recent venture addresses a critical weakness in Bitcoin’ s infrastructure. In August 2025, Block unveiled the Proto Rig, a modular Bitcoin mining system designed to challenge Bitmain’ s 80 % market monopoly. The innovation represents a fundamental shift from disposable mining hardware to sustainable, upgradeable systems.
Unlike traditional mining rigs with a typical three-to-five-year lifespan, Proto Rig is designed to last up to 10 years through its modular architecture that allows operators to replace individual hashboards rather than entire units.
This approach reduces upgrade costs by 15-20 % per cycle while delivering 1.5 times more power per rack-foot compared to traditional hardware.
The technical specifications demonstrate Block’ s commitment to efficiency and sustainability. Max Guise, Product & ASIC Lead at Proto, confirmed the system is“ vertically integrated endto-end, including our own chip,” with configurations achieving efficiency ratings as low as 14.1 joules per hash. The modular chassis measures 39cm by 29cm by 50cm and can accommodate nine boards, six fans, and three modular power units. Accompanying the hardware launch, Block introduced Proto Fleet, a free, open-source fleet management platform that consolidates power scaling, diagnostics, monitoring and maintenance into a single interface. This software addresses industry complaints about fragmented tooling and complexity in mining management.
124 November 2025