Jack Dorsey and Block abandon Web5 to mine bitcoin

Block, the firm behind Cash App, announced in its Quarter 3 Shareholder Letter that it will be winding down TBD, it’s “Web5” initiative in order to “invest in our bitcoin mining initiative… and Bitkey, our self-custody wallet for Bitcoin.”

TBD was split into two primary projects: “Web5,” which was described as “a new identity and trust layer for the internet,” and tbDEX, which was supposed to be focused on “reimagining global payments and commerce.”

The “Web5” component was yet to be integrated into any significant projects, and the tbDEX project was yet to launch for any transactions.

Read more: Block whistleblower says firm ignored compliance, allowed terror groups

Ending these projects will apparently allow Square to focus resources on its bitcoin mining initiative, which earlier this year announced it had finished development of its own mining chip that it intends to supply to Core Scientific. 

It apparently intends to supply Core Scientific with approximately 15 exahashes/second of hashing power, which would represent approximately 70% of the approximately 21.8 exahashes/second that Core Scientific reported in its most recent investor update.

However, Core Scientific has not substantially deployed Block’s chip, noting, “substantially all of the miners we own and host were manufactured by Bitmain.” 

BitKey, launched at the end of last year, is a multi-signature bitcoin wallet that integrates a hardware wallet and cloud recovery options.

Currently the revenue for all these different projects is rolled into the “Corporate and Other” category on the filings with music streaming service TIDAL and this segment reported approximately $44 million in revenue for the last quarter, driven almost exclusively by subscriptions, presumably to TIDAL.

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